The Girl Within the Puzzle
by MarBere123
Summary: Yami finished the Puzzle, then something strange happened and she appeared. She can barely remember herself. She doesn't know why she's there and she has no idea if she should. She seems to be a lost soul in the world, however she doesn't have the characteristics of an ordinary ghost. Who is Mana really and what happened to her? And why only he can see and hear her?
1. prelude

**_Hey, I'm here again! I just wanted to say that the title for this fic was given by ZombieQueen22 since I didn't know how to translate it exactly. So thanks for your help and I hope you enjoy this!_**

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS _**

* * *

If he had to say it, she was like a light and he was like a shadow.

Both would always grow alongside the other and one would always stand out more than the other.

But if the light disappeared, then everything would be from the darkness. Everyone would look at the shadow. No one would seek the light because it simply wouldn't be.

"Hey, what do you think you are doing?! I was going to deliver it tomorrow!"

He was pushed aside in the act. She looked at him confused and scared, she didn't recognize him in that look and he didn't either. Of course, she probably never thought he would do something like that.

When she took her things and left, he knew he couldn't let her go. She was as talented as he was, after all, if she got up early...

He ran after her and knew it was true.

Surely she never thought he would do something like that.

After all, he was nothing she believed.


	2. I

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS. _**

* * *

Finally. Only one piece needed to be fitted and that puzzle would be finished. Yami smiled to remember when he and his brother Yūgi received that object eight years ago.

There were many pieces, his grandfather told them not to worry so much, since he hadn't been able to complete it either. However here they were, both, with a single piece between their fingers.

Before they could finish it, Yūgi stopped him, because he wanted to tell their grandfather to come and see the pyramidal object. Yami had no problems, he himself had witnessed how much his grandfather loved games, so what better than seeing the most complicated puzzle, finished by his own descendants?

However he was somewhat uneasy. He didn't know why, but his eagerness to finish it was as unbearable as his grandfather's snoring, and he was very patient.

Well, he told himself, he could put the piece on and then take it out again.

It wasn't a big deal, and Yūgi was taking his time to return. He couldn't blame him.

With a little sigh that calmed his heartbeat, Yami settled back into the desk seat and watched the Millennium Puzzle before deciding.

He took the piece between his fingers and placed it where it should be. He felt... accomplished, for some reason. Although, instantly, something happened.

A glow caused him to step back on the back.

"Huh?" alarmed, Yami witnessed a powerful and blinding light that the millennial object emitted.

He didn't know if he closed his eyes, or not, although he soon knew that something was not normal.

Because he saw a girl.

The silhouette of a girl appeared in the middle of the glowing light. He couldn't see her face, nor hear her voice. She turned her back on him, so he could only notice that she had her arms crossed behind and under her long blond hair, as well as light skin.

In the end he could also see a smile, because at the last moment she turned her face. He couldn't notice anything beyond that though, nor did he know if she was smiling at him.

She looked far away, somehow.

"Hey, Yami. Hey," then he felt someone move him by the shoulders. Little by little, Yami woke up until he saw his brother's face. "Seriously, I didn't take too long, how can you fall asleep?"

_Asleep?_ Yami frowned and stretched his arms across the table, pushing the puzzle aside. His eyes weren't quite used to the light, but it didn't bother him either.

When he looked back at Yūgi, he had a huge smile on his face.

"Grandpa was so excited he went to get his camera," he said.

Yami nodded.

Soon, what happened recently flooded his head image by image.

He realized that he hadn't removed the puzzle piece again.

"Yūgi, I'm sorry, I—"

His brother inclined his head and then Solomon appeared through the doorway announcing that he had found that old device that, Yami was sure, still used rolls instead of a digital system.

"Well, where is the masterpiece?" asked their grandfather preparing the camera.

Yūgi pointed to the desk table and Yami, worried and embarrassed, also turned his eyes to the object.

Then Yūgi took the missing piece between his fingers and placed it in place.

"Finally. It feels good to finish it, doesn't it, brother?"

"Huh, ah... Yes," he was baffled.

Was it all a dream?

_Just me...?,_ Yami shook his head and smiled at his brother just before their grandfather pressed the camera shutter.

It couldn't have been a dream, could it? It didn't make sense. He had done what he had done and had seen what he had seen. Everything had been real, he was almost 100% sure of it. After all, he didn't remember falling asleep.

But it was impossible that Yūgi or their grandfather were faking their emotion. Everything was confusing.

Just confusing.

_It was only a dream. It was just a dream_..., Yami really tried to convince himself of that while he had dinner, brushed his teeth and lay on his bed. _It was just a dream, it's not a big deal. Tomorrow I will wake up and everything will remain normal._

Or that was what he tried to believe, because, the next morning, when the light barely dyed the sky, a voice woke him from his pleasant dream.

_ "Atem? Atem? Wake up, you have to see this!"_

He murmured, rather he growled when he was aware that it wasn't yet dawn.

Furthermore...

"Who the hell is Atem?" he asked, turning his bed around and further messing up the comforter.

He heard a giggle and frowned. It was being a weird dream.

_ "You are Atem, of course,"_ someone pinched his cheek. _"Come on, wake up, you're going to miss the sunrise." _

Realizing that he was no longer sleeping and that what he was hearing wasn't only inside his head, Yami sat down as if he had a spring on his back and looked around feeling that typical dizziness of changing position.

There was no one. He frowned, _again?_

"I guess... I'm just dreaming..." running his hands over his face, Yami was willing to forget what happened, ready to go back to sleep until his alarm clock rang that he didn't notice the person lying on his side.

_ "Have you always been so sleepy, Atem?" Or is it weird that I am not sleepy?_

This time Yami knew that he hadn't hallucinate it, for that sharp and feminine voice came from the girl who was only a few centimeters away.

She was very relaxed on her left side, her dark brown and rumpled hair fell slightly on the pillows and her tanned skin stood out on his white sheets. She wore a short, cream-colored dress despite the cold winter, in addition to a small head ornament that appeared to be of the same material.

She smiled at him when her eyes, green as emeralds, met his.

_ "Hm?"_

And he couldn't stand it anymore. Then, when it was just dawn, the inhabitants of the Mutō house were awakened by a shrill scream.

"What the hell—?! Who the hell are you and what are you doing in my room?!"

"Heh?! Wait!"

The girl jumped at the same time as him making Yami not notice that her feet didn't touch the ground while his were almost entangled with the sheets, but he managed not to fall.

Was he supposed to know that girl? Had Yūgi played a joke? How his mother had allowed that?!

_ "Wait, Atem, it's me! It's me!"_ she exclaimed, moving her hands in a futile attempt to reassure him. _"It's Mana! Mana!" _

He didn't wait and when Yūgi opened the door of the room asking what was happening, Yami soon spoke.

"Yūgi, what the hell?! Who is she?!" he asked pointing to the so-called Mana.

Rubbing one eye, Yūgi looked away to the place Yami pointed out, only to frown and make a face of frustration.

"Are you still sleeping? There is no one there!" Yūgi pointed out rolling his eyes and yawning. "You know, you haven't had nightmares in a while, but please don't react like that. You can kill grandpa from a heart attack."

"What?" Yami asked and looked back at the brown-haired girl.

She greeted him with a raised hand.

"But there she is!" he insisted. "I swear, Yūgi, if this is a joke, I will take revenge by telling Téa that—!"

"What, Yami?! There is no one there!" Yūgi said again, but seeing the confidence in his brother's eyes, he had no choice but to approach the same place he pointed to.

Ignoring Yami's questions about what he was doing, Yūgi took the sheets and threw them over Mana.

For a moment Yami thought that his brother had gone crazy, and then he noticed that he was the one going crazy.

Each of the sheets went through the girl's body as if she were not there and they piled on the floor covering some of his dirty clothes scattered around.

He opened and closed his mouth again and again until he could only swallow.

Once Yūgi proved his point, he ignored Yami again and left his room warning that he would see him again when they were having breakfast within a couple of hours.

For a long few seconds, silence reigned in the room. Seconds in which Yami devoted himself to watch, with caution, the girl who now floated above his bed.

She had no shadow, he noted.

_ "Relax, I'm not going to kill you or something,"_ from the smile, he knew she was joking, but he didn't relax.

"Who you are?" he wanted to know once he could emit coherent words.

She smiled.

_ "I told you, I'm Mana."_

"But I am not Atem, "he said, getting up slowly. It would cost him to go back to sleep after everything that had happened. "My name is Yami. Yami Mutō."

"I'm Mana," she repeated in the same leisurely tone as him.

He sighed.

"Okay..." he said the word thinking about what else to say so as not to feel crazy. "Mana what? Do you have last names?"

She shrugged.

_"I don't know."_

"Are you here for any reason?"

She laughed.

_"No idea!" _

Noticing that he wasn't going to get much, Yami decided to be more direct.

"Are you a ghost?" he wanted to know. "Are you dead? Do you regret something not to, ehm..., leave?"

For a second and only for a second, something that wasn't confident or fun peeked in the expression of the girl who floated. He didn't know if it was fear, or bewilderment, although it could also have been realization.

She pursed her lips before turning on her shaft giving a feeling of not knowing where she was although she had already been there for a few minutes.

With a hand on her chest and her eyes on the floor again, she replied:

_ "I don't know,"_ then her expression filled with energy again and flew around the room, openly ignoring Yami's gaze. _ "Tell me, Atem, what are all these things?" _

Her eyes were focused on electronic devices. The radios, the speakers, the computer, the television. It seemed that she hadn't really seen one before and looked at it from every possible angle.

But he wasn't going to continue the game.

_ "That is not my name, I already told you," _he sighed_. "In any case, who is him? _ _Maybe I can—" _

_ "I don't know,"_ she interrupted.

Okay. It was taking everything Yami had to not scream and wake up middle of the city.

"You don't know. You don't know. You don't know," he repeated irritated by the lack of sleep. "What do you know then?"

She looked at him for a few long seconds before floating toward his desk, where the Millennium Puzzle rested.

Yami remembered what happened. Maybe it had something to do? Although he couldn't analyze it well when the voice of the floating girl filled his ears.

_"I know that my name is Mana and I know that I must be close to the owner of this object, who is called Atem,"_ she pointed the golden pyramid. _"You finished it, so... Well, other than that..."_

She pursed her eyes and seemed to struggle. Then she shook her head in surrender.

_ "Then I am as confused and disoriented as you. Maybe even more, since I don't remember or know other things." _

And with that last sentence said, Yami knew that his peace days were over.


	3. II

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS. _**

**_So... Can someone explain to me what's the difference between ghost and phantom? _**

* * *

Yami sighed when he went downstairs so he could have breakfast. Changing his clothes had never been so tired, especially since, although Mana had common sense, she didn't understand why she should wait for him outside the room while dressing.

Her arguments made him take a considerable amount of minutes, long enough for Yūgi and his grandfather to be seated, each eating a toast.

"You've been very... talkative," his twin brother commented as he sipped his coffee with milk.

"Yeah, well... I was talking on the phone, you know," he said, avoiding his gaze before changing the subject. "And mom?"

"She left earlier to work, shortly after you woke us up," his grandfather explained, making Yami blush with shame. "What happened?"

"I had a nightmare."

"Really?" Yūgi raised an eyebrow.

Yami rolled his eyes noting, sideways, that Mana gave a look at each corner without separating more than three meters from him.

"You said it."

With a chuckle, Yūgi nodded.

"I was half asleep," he smiled.

_"Wou, Atem, this boy is identical to you,"_ Mana commented, watching Yūgi.

Yami almost prayed for his brother to notice her, but Yūgi ended up just asking for more sugar.

He sighed and also made his coffee. Unlike Yūgi, he liked it more bitter and pure, one of the many tests that differentiated them beyond their stature.

Mana laughed and approached Yami again.

_"What is that?"_ she asked, pointing at his cup. _"Tastes good?" _

Yami looked at her for a few seconds before shrugging. He would have replied that, because of her personality, the most likely answer was a «no» , but he refused to speak _alone_ in front of his relatives.

However Mana's questions did not stop there.

Once they left home to go to school, Mana began bombing with every question and comment that came to mind and did not stop even when he was in the middle of his classes.

_«Why are everyone sitting? How boring!»_

_«What's there?! I wanna go!»_

_«Atem, Atem, what is that? What does it taste like?!» _

His patience was running out. If at any time he had thought he would bear it, then he'd made a big mistake.

If he has was patience? Of course! But Mana was like an overactive girl who ate ten tons of sugar on top!

"Hey, are you sure you can't leave?" he asked trying not to sound rude.

He didn't know if he succeeded, but Mana still smiled when she floated to his side with her hands folded behind her back.

_"Yes!"_ she replied and walked away a little. Her energy soon seemed to decline when he looked at her again. _"Do you want to know what happens if...?" _

She didn't let him answer, because before Yami realized, Mana was already moving further and further away until she disappeared.

It was something sudden and strange. Her body didn't become translucent or anything like that, she just disappeared as if she had never been there before.

And before he could even frown, her voice startled him.

_"Did I worry you?"_ she asked.

Yami turned everywhere, but apart from some students from other years, there was no one in the yard he knew, much less someone who stood out so much.

_"I__'m here."_

She wasn't far. He could know that, but the term «here» was so relative and extensive that he couldn't find out at first.

But then she reappeared.

"From where—?"

_"The Puzzle,"_ she said, pointing._ "No matter how far I go, I always go back inside that object. I don't like it. It's cold and... lonely, you know." _

He didn't answer. He was surprised and confused.

_So it does have something to do with this,_ he thought, taking the golden pyramid in his hands. However, he couldn't find any logical relation in his brain.

He couldn't even find a normal explanation.

"Oh, here you are!" then a voice took him out of his thoughts.

A few meters away, leaving the main building, a girl with short brown hair and a thin and tall figure was approaching quickly.

Behind her came his brother and they both stopped at his side.

"We came to eat with you," she said. "Right, Yūgi?"

Yūgi nodded a couple of times before looking at his brother.

"Tea brought us both something to eat," he announced.

Yami thanked her with a smile, but shifted uncomfortably in his seat, and perhaps his expression turned into a strange grimace when he heard Mana laugh.

_"Huh... How sweet your girlfriend,"_ she said, floating around him.

"She's not," he replied almost by reflex.

They often said that to him and to Téa and, although none bothered him in particular, it was uncomfortable after everything that happened.

"What is «not»?" Tea frowned. Between her fingers were the chopsticks to eat while she took another lunch box out of her backpack.

He shook his head.

"No, nothing."

The next few minutes, Yami had to ignore Mana's insistent questions about the taste of the food.

"It's delicious, Téa," said Yūgi taking a sip of hot tea.

The girl smiled and looked back at Yami waiting for him to say something similar.

"Yes, it is," he agreed.

He heard a chuckle.

_"So it's not your girlfriend, because your brother likes her," _she reasoned, somehow_. "A love triangle, huh... How interesting!" _

"It's not like that! Stop, please!" once again he reacted immediately, with more force and more hardness.

Mana closed her lips and lost the mischievous smile, surely surprised.

Some other students stopped their footsteps upon hearing him, while Téa and Yūgi stopped their conversation to watch.

"Yami? You're okay?" Téa asked worriedly.

Realizing what happened, he soon felt that everyone was watching him curiously.

He looked to any point and at the same time to none just to avoid direct confrontations.

"I..."

And now what could he say?

His brain was trying to machine any kind of logical response, but nothing came. Shame surpassed him more than he could admit at times like that.

"He has a headache since morning," Yūgi interrupted, suddenly catching Tea's attention and his. With a smile that seemed to be mocking, he continued. "He didn't sleep well, he had nightmares, so it's normal."

Although it hadn't been the best idea, it was enough to make Téa look kind of relieved.

Yami, meanwhile, didn't lose his embarrassment even when Téa tapped him on the shoulder to comfort him.

"Oh," she said, smiling. "You seemed annoyed early, I should have guessed. If you want, I can ask the nurse for a couple of pills."

And before he could answer, Yūgi nodded for him.

"Yes, do it, please."

With a nod, Téa indicated that they would wait for her there and ran to the office of the infirmary while she kept the lunch boxes in her purse.

Yami sighed trying to calm down.

"So?" asked Yūgi looking at him.

"So what?"

"Are you going to tell me what happens to you?" Yugi raised an eyebrow with a sideways smile as he pushed it with a friendly shoulder. "I know you have no headache, but I can say with total certainty that something is happening to you. Especially since you've been talking alone since this morning."

Once again he felt his cheeks warming with shame. He thought again about saying he was talking on the phone, but it was obvious that Yūgi wouldn't believe him.

_Should I...?_ He hesitated for many seconds until Mana intervened by placing herself at the side of his field of vision.

_"You should tell him,"_ she suggested with a reassuring smile. _"Even if he doesn't believe you, siblings always support each other. That is something I am sure of." _

And how did she know that?

Yami forgot to ask when, after an exhalation, he began to tell everything that had happened since last night.

He saw how Yūgi's expression was changing from serene to incredulous and then to curious without any problem. Although always having that puzzled touch that anyone would have before a story as such.

"So you're basically telling me that since you completed the Millennium Puzzle last night, a spirit is following you everywhere," Yūgi concluded with an eyebrow raised. He seemed to reason more with himself than with Yami.

Yami shook his head from side to side listening to Mana complain.

"No, Mana doesn't know if she's a spirit," he explained.

"«Mana»?"

"That's... uh... Her name," Yami said with a nod. "Other than that and that she shouldn't stay away from the Puzzle, it's all she remembers. Or so she says."

"Huh..." Yugi put a finger to his chin that gave him the feeling that he was analyzing it.

Who knows, maybe he just pretended to do it. Yami felt bad about himself, after all, Yūgi was his twin brother, but he never quite understood him.

"Forget it," he said after several seconds of silence.

He got up willing to leave, but Yūgi stopped him getting up too.

"Wait, no. It's just that it's a bit difficult to assimilate," Yūgi took a breath and then said. "I know something happens to you Yami, and although I can't believe it, I also know you're not lying."

"Huh?"

Yami looked at him and Yūgi smiled.

"We're twins, after all. Try to trust me a little more."

Beside him, Mana smiled issuing a «I told you so,» but he felt very guilty about it. He was a shame of brother and that Téa appeared at that time with the pills only looking at him as she approached just reminded him.

Then the bell rang.

"But we'll talk about it at home, okay? I want to pay attention to the classes," Yūgi joked.

Mana snorted.

_"What's good with classes? They are boring! I want to play something, Atem!" _

He silently denied knowing he would have to listen to Mana complain for the rest of the day until he got home.

He let Yūgi get ahead of him with Téa and exhaled tired.

Yami just had to concentrate on not exploding in everyone's middle again.

That was, without a doubt, a very long day of classes. The first of many.


	4. III

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS. _**

* * *

When Yami least realized, spring arrived and, with it, the final exams would soon arrive as well as the occasional festival both at school and in the city.

During those weeks he realized two things: the first, Mana said less than she knew —he found out when, being bored while trying to solve a math exercise, she ended up helping him to do it successfully— and the second, she didn't seem she was thinking of leaving soon.

Surprisingly, Yami found himself thinking that he didn't dislike the idea, as long as Mana wasn't given unsatisfactory curiosity attacks.

But with that realization, he realized something else: she didn't seem quite sincere. Obviously, a girl like her couldn't be happy in the state she was in.

And how someone could? Yami wondered, drumming his pencil on his book. Mana couldn't go where she wanted, nor touch what she wanted, nor discover what she wanted to discover. No, she didn't even know where she wanted to go or who she wanted to talk to.

However, she didn't seek a way to solve the mystery that surrounded her or ask for help. Certainly, if Yami hadn't found her one night meditating while looking at the sky with concern, he wouldn't even have thought about it.

Really. Mana said nothing.

"Mr. Mutō, can you tell the rest of the class the answer to question number ten?"

Suddenly, the literature teacher —or was it history?— pulled it out of his thoughts with a question he hadn't paid attention to.

Yami blinked a few times under the questioning look of the gray-haired and wrinkled teacher.

"Um..." reacting as notoriously as possible, he searched the question among the many words on the page of his book.

"Mr. Mutō?" he insisted.

Yami nodded, but still remained silent. Literature, or history, or whatever it was, was not his thing.

But...

_"«Art is plagiarism or revolution.» said by Paul Gauguin,"_ but apparently it was something of Mana.

Although somewhat hesitant, Yami ended up saying the same thing as her being, to his relief, the correct answer.

Ysmi sighed as he relaxed his back on the back of the seat and without discretion kept watching Mana. As with the exercise of mathematics, or electronic devices, it seemed that there must be some kind of trigger to lead some of her memories, however, or she hadn't noticed, or didn't want to mention it.

Later, when the break time arrived, Yami took one of his books and the hamburger that his grandfather had prepared for him to eat and study a little alone.

The classroom had been left empty, as most students decided to go and buy their lunches.

When he opened his book, his fright was great at the moment when Mana inclined her head over it.

_"Hey, Atem, why don't you go find Yūgi or Téa? Don't you get bored of studying?" _

He took a breath not to lose his patience and nodded.

"Of course it bores me," he said, shifting his position to one where he could clearly see the hallway just in case someone came in. _"But I have no choice. As you saw, I am not very good with literature." _

Mana just smiled.

_"Then I can't help you? It would be easier if I told you the answers, wouldn't it?" _

"That would be cheating. Also, how do you know about literature and artists?" he questioned before he forgot.

She shrugged and sat down —or pretended to do— on the desk next to her.

_"It's one of the first things they teach us,"_ she frowned and removed her smile.

He raised an eyebrow noting that she had also realized her words.

"Where? Where did they teach you, Mana?" he insisted, in case it was of any use, but she ended up bringing a hand to her forehead and sighing.

_"N-No, I don't know,"_ she replied confused. _"Phrases, history... I just know that I already know some of that..."_ she looked at him again. _"Do you think I'm remembering?" _

He shrugged.

"I don't know. But it would be a good thing, right? You would know what happened to you and what you really are."

Mana looked away and it took a few seconds to open her lips to respond, however she couldn't do so when Yami's classmates re-entered the classroom drawing the boy's attention.

* * *

For the first time in all the time they had together, Mana had run out of words to say, or without actions to execute.

_Now they could say that I am a ghost_, she thought. _Although_, she looked at her hands that, although they weren't translucent, they still didn't feel real, they were not warm and she couldn't touch anything, _who says that I am not?_

At the moment she hadn't found anything related to her and it wasn't that she hadn't searched, as she was sure Atem believed, it was that she couldn't do much while being tied to the shadow of the tricolor-haired boy.

There were many things she didn't understand and didn't know, but once she analyzed it well, or someone gave her some clue, she found herself knowing what she should know.

It was strange.

For example, the first time Atem taught her how to use the television, she was surprised that she remembered how and what it worked for, but had no memories of herself using the object.

She was confused. Confused and lost. Lost and scared.

Yes, that was what she was feeling, fear. Afraid to find out what was happening to her. Afraid that she was really dead, because, if so, how could she continue to enjoy earthly things?

"Hey, are you alright?" Atem asked once they were in front of his home while Yūgi opened the door.

But at the same time she was curious. Curious to know what Yūgi would think, if one day they talked face to face, or Téa, if she found out she has been living with the boy she likes since winter.

She nodded.

_"Yup." _

He didn't seem convinced, his high eyebrow told her, but he didn't insist more before entering with Yūgi.

She knew that at any moment she would have to decide something, although she wasn't sure what, she was prepared. She should be.

* * *

Yami exhaled all the air from his lungs when he took a seat on the living room sofa. He had told Yūgi everything he had discovered in those last days with Mana and although they still didn't find an explanation for the Puzzle, they both agreed that first was first: they should discover what, or who was Mana.

"So you're not tied to any special duty?" Yūgi asked out loud.

His brother had taken the habit of speaking directly to her, because he said it would be weird to be using Yami as a phone all the time

Mana denied.

"She says no," Yami replied.

"I see," Yugi frowned and crossed out something on a paper he had taken out of his backpack just before observing something in an open book next to it.

Both Yami and Mana looked at him curious to know what he had there.

"It's a book of occultism," he explained consciously of the eyes on him, but without looking back at them. "There is a guy in my class who likes these things and I asked him if he could lend it to me for today. Maybe we can discard Mana from some of these options."

_"And wouldn't it be faster to bring that boy here?"_ asked Mana. _"That is, if he likes these things, he would surely believe Atem." _

Yami had to repeat everything Mana said for her brother to respond.

Yūgi denied.

"I thought the same, but he said it would have to be another day, that today he must go to the hospital, or something like that."

Mana blinked a few times with a frown before returning to Yūgi and watching the book closely.

"Huh... And what else does it say?" Yami asked as Mana floated around Yūgi.

"It says if you look a ghost in the eye, he can possess you."

Quickly, Yami denied and discarded the idea. His eyes had met Mana's many times and, apart from thinking they had a pretty iris color, he had felt nothing more.

"The last thing would be the poltergeist phenomena," Yūgi said a little, perhaps, excited.

_"Poltergeist phenomena?"_ repeated Mana looking at Yami.

"In other words: it's what mostly refers to the events inexplicably occurred," he explained in the easiest way he could think of. "For example, breaking things, strange smells, sounds without origin. You know, what ghosts would do."

_"Huh..." _

Seeming suddenly determined, Mana flew to a nearby ornament in which she placed her attention for a moment before stretching her arm toward it.

"¿Huh? Wait!" Yami didn't have time to intervene when Mana's arm went through her grandfather's favorite vase.

Nothing happened —which made him exhale gladly — and Yūgi soon asked about Yami's action.

Once the taller twin brother concluded the newly made events, an uneasy expression formed on Yūgi's face.

"Well, at least you're not a ghost, or a demon," he said obviously to Mana. "But if you're not, then I really don't know how to help you. Well, in this book it doesn't say how, at least."

The three remained silent until grandpa Solomon returned from wherever he had gone with a couple of bags of fast food in his hands.

Once the table was set and the three of them were sitting around —since their mother was still not coming back— with Mana floating behind Yami's back, his grandfather suddenly seemed to remember something when he jumped a little on his chair.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you!" he exclaimed looking at Yūgi, so the news was for him. "My friend, Professor Hawkins, is coming from the United States with Rebecca."

Yami had to clench her lips so as not to spit his food with the laugh that threatened to leave.

"G-Gramps!"

Yūgi cringed in his seat with his cheeks burning with embarrassment and shame. It wasn't a subject he liked to discuss.

Rebecca was Professor Hawkins' granddaughter, a girl a few years younger than them who had been in love with Yūgi — not to say obsessed — since they met when they visited once a year ago.

He, of course, couldn't miss the opportunity even if Mana looked at him reproachfully.

"Come on, Yūgi, you should ask her out!" he suggested.

His brother's eyes could no longer open while his grandfather's eyes appeared bright with emotion.

"True! You should try, son, to get to know each other better!" said Solomon.

It would definitely be a dream for the old man that his family and that of his best friend come together in that way.

Yūgi almost complained when, suddenly, an idea seemed to come to his mind. Suddenly any trace of shame disappeared and, instead, he looked back at Yami.

"That is!" he exclaimed in the same way as Solomon. "You should go out with Mana!"

Almost, he hardly spits his drink.

His grandfather raised his plate just in time before it was ruined by orange juice.

"Mana?" he asked cleaning with a napkin. "Who's that?"

Yūgi's eyes shone in revenge and he took advantage that Yami was coughing to answer.

"Someone who hasn't left my brother's mind lately."

The corners of Solomon's lips rose at the same time as his eyebrows, interested in the newly revealed.

"Oh... So someone has fallen in love and they haven't told me anything."

Yami hurried to recover to answer.

"N-No! Of course not! I don't even know her well!" he denied forcefully overlooking Mana's dejected expression. "Besides, it would be strange..."

This time he avoided looking at her on purpose, as they both knew it wasn't a lie. In a normal situation, if Mana were flesh and blood, or if just someone else could see her apart from him, maybe, just maybe, he would have invited her out at another time.

But the situation wasn't that.

"Just think about it, Yami," Yūgi continued. "You said she needed triggers, didn't you? Perhaps this is better than going back and forth only from school to home and vice versa," no one bothered to explain to his grandfather. "See different places, maybe a movie, or music. You know! Just do what you would usually do on a date to see if anything comes."

Mana laughed a little.

_"Eh... So someone is such a ladies' man."_

Did she even know what it meant? Yami forced himself to ignore the comment. Of course he wasn't like that!

And although he knew that Yūgi had a very good point there, he didn't want to go down the street talking to someone no one else saw.

Of course, Mana wasn't the problem, at least, neither her personality nor her looks were —mostly. Simply the state she was in wasn't one he could fully enjoy.

He sighed. He didn't want to have to say it, but...

"I will go only if you tell Téa to go. You know, a «group outing» would be more comfortable."

Yūgi was silent. It had been a low blow. He knew. It wasn't his first option to discourage him, but it was the most effective if he didn't want to—

"Okay, I'll tell her tomorrow."

Once again Yami choked, but this time by breathing and swallowing saliva at the same time.

Meanwhile, Mana could only laugh about it.

Really, sometimes Yami found him incomprehensible.


	5. IV

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS. _**

* * *

With the sun leaving the sky and illuminating the room with warm colors, Yami entered his bedroom being followed by Mana. She didn't lose the bright smile on her face and didn't seem to do so soon.

_"That boy Yūgi has more guts than I thought, huh..."_ she commented, turning around and clasping her hands behind her.

He sighed without really responding just before taking a seat in front of his desk. That Yūgi had responded in that way, so resolved and determined, had managed to get him out of the mental stability he had left.

Now he not only had to worry about the matter with Mana, but also about the awkward opportunity he had created himself.

He heard Mana laugh softly before approaching his side and leaning on the desk. He looked back with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" he asked when he saw her smile sideways.

_"__Something bothers you, doesn't it?"_ she told him._ "We don't have to be connected in a special way to know."_

"... What?" he repeated and Mana laughed again.

_"You have been silent and with wrinkled eyebrows since Yūgi agreed to invite Téa to this «group outing», why?"_ she asked convinced that her evidence was concrete. _"So you are that kind of person? Of those who contain their own feelings for the good of others?"_

He looked at her in silence for a moment. Straight in the eye even though she seemed to pierce him with her eyes.

* * *

Mana could tell, by the time she had spent with Atem, that he wasn't the type who expressed his opinion unless he really wanted to or was completely necessary.

She could even say that he was now discussing internally about whether talking to her was fine, or if it would be a mistake.

Of course, it was normal that he doubted since they had only known each other since the middle of winter, but, honestly, _who would I tell?_ Mana wondered, forcing herself not to roll her eyes as she showed her conviction.

She wasn't a girl of much patience, but she could bear it as long as it was someone close to her.

Especially if it was about the only person she could talk to at the moment.

Then he looked away first.

"It's not that," Atem answered her previous question. "Even if it were for Yūgi, if I liked Téa that way, it wouldn't hold me back."

She raised an eyebrow.

_"So? How do you know that the reason you are uneasy is not because you like that girl?"_

He leaned a little and rested his elbows on the desk table while resting his chin on his hands, leaving his gaze away from her.

"I only know," he said, although the answer was too lazy.

_"You «only know»?"_ repeated Mana, crossing her arms in front of her chest. _"You don't wait for me to be satisfied with that, do you?"_

Atem said nothing, so Mana had to think about something else. She wanted him to trust her more. That he could open his heart, or whatever that meant, as long as he could stop making that strange confused expression.

But how could she do it? She couldn't even—

She pursed her lips. An idea went through her as fast as she blinked.

_"Atem, can I touch you?"_ she asked suddenly, surprising him and herself. The words came out of her lips even before she analyzed them well.

"Huh?"

* * *

Yami couldn't answer clearly, but before he knew it, Mana had already stretched an arm towards him and placed her palm on his left cheek.

He swallowed. It wasn't at all what he expected.

But what did he really expect? That will cross it? That it was warm, or perhaps cold?

Whatever he was waiting for, it was certainly nothing like that. Her hand was there, but at the same time it wasn't. There was no warmth, there was no real contact between them.

How to touch something and at the same time nothing. As if she—

_"As if I didn't exist, right?"_ Mana interrupted his thoughts with a phrase too hard, but also right.

He looked at her and although she had a smile, it wasn't one of the graceful smiles with which he had become used to seeing her.

_"I can touch you, but it's not at all what one expects, isn't it?"_ she pulled her hand away and watched it as if she could find the answers to her questions_. "I've been thinking about it and, even if I don't exist, I can still hear you, you know? I can talk to you and I can try to help you. Even if I don't exist for others, I do it for you. You can rely on me a little more. You don't have to keep things, Atem. Either bad, or good, as long as they are the truth. I can listen to you and believe you."_

It was, he couldn't deny it, hard to hear her talk like that. It was even very likely that Mana didn't want to do it, or say what she thought, but she was looking for a way to reach him even though it wasn't as important as it seemed.

Then, for some reason, he felt his lips curl up slightly moved by Mana's attempts to help him.

But as fast as the small curve appeared, it left with only a long sigh. It would be the first time he talked about it with someone.

"Just... don't tell anyone, especially Yūgi."

Mana raised both eyebrows. He knew that what he had said sounded ridiculous since he was the only one who could talk to her, but he still had to emphasize it.

In the end, under his gaze, Mana nodded and smiled.

_"I promise!" _

Yami smiled slightly again before exhaling and leaning his body a little forward, looking for the best way to start.

"During last year's vacation, Téa and I were together. Together in, well..., the way you can imagine."

Staying a few seconds in silence to see her reaction, Yami could appreciate the change in Mana's expression, going from serene and expectant to surprised and confused, but she didn't mention anything about it and just waited for him to continue.

So he did.

"It didn't last long, maybe until the second year classes started, but we kept it a secret from Yūgi... I guess, unconsciously, I knew what he would feel," he sighed. "From one moment to another it only became strenuous. Having to hide it, having to be with her... As if I were two people at the same time when I only had to be one."

_"And you chose to be a brother instead of a boyfriend."_

He shook his head from side to side, Mana just waited for his answer.

"To be honest, I never liked Téa in a special way. She is a good friend and companion, but I cannot see her as something else. I was tired, and one thing led to another and I ended up saying it out loud."

_"Uh... I guess she didn't like it."_

Yami laughed.

"You aren't wrong," he agreed. "She yelled at me a lot one night, but the next day we met again and she said she understood, that she wanted us to be «all three» again. Yūgi knew that something had happened between us and he was worried, so I ended up accepting her friendship offer again, but... I don't know..."

There was silence and, before he knew it, Mana was taking him by the hand.

She frowned at her action.

_"Hmm... It's not quite comforting, isn't it?"_ she commented with a pout before looking up at him. _"__Do you think Téa still likes you?" _

"I don't know her feelings," before his quick refusal, Mana laughed.

_"Liar,"_ she said with a warm smile. _"You know her feelings and you know Yūgi's. You are afraid of him getting hurt, aren't you? Although you know that Téa is not that type of girl, you still don't know what can happen." _

Yami was surprised before the assertiveness of her words, but more stunned was to notice how much Mana could read him.

She released his hand and, although there was no sensation in itself, the simple act of seeing her do so left him half empty.

_"It's okay that you don't want to tell him anything, but Yūgi himself said it, didn't he? Try to trust him a little more, Atem. If you don't say things clearly, he won't understand you even because you are brothers,__" _they both fell silent in the middle of the afternoon, each analyzing the words just said.

Once again, Yami felt that Mana said less than she could say.

"Mana, you—"

However, she didn't let him finish when she suddenly walked away and placed her hands on her hips like a jug and with her chin up.

_"Also, don't underestimate a girl's feelings! I bet Téa will be able to keep moving forward without the need to find a replacement for you, Mr. Arrogant!"_

The sudden change of topic baffled him for several seconds in which Mana could only laugh again.

He also did it, somehow, feeling less weight on his shoulders. It was strange that talking to this girl, invisible to others, was so easy for him. So relaxing and free.

Once they both stopped, with her wiping an invisible tear, the silence that surrounded them was more pleasant than he thought.

_"But, Atem, it's fine that you want to protect Yūgi,"_ she continued suddenly. _"If you don't want to go, you don't have to. Don't force yourself to go—"_

"You are too eloquent," he interrupted her by crossing his arms in front of him and avoided looking straight ahead.

This time she didn't seem to be talking about Yūgi.

"I don't want to go, but it's an opportunity to know what, or who you are. I will hate the awkward environment that is sure to form, but I can stand it."

A smile escaped Mana's shocked expression before she floated by his side looking for his line of sight.

_"You contradict yourself."_

"Silence."

After all, he wouldn't do something he didn't want.

She laughed when he turned in search of his books to study something —and to have an excuse and hide his heated cheeks in shame— but when he returned to the same place, where Mana was a few seconds ago, she had already moved.

She had moved with a strange stealth to the window of the room to watch through it. Her gaze didn't return to him at any time later.

Yami didn't know why, but it gave him the feeling that she was the one who was forcing something.


	6. V

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS. _**

* * *

With pink shorts and a yellow top, Téa appeared in front of the Mutō family's game store. Her neck was adorned by a pink choker and her wrists wore a few bracelets next to a small clock, which she observed to know the time.

They hadn't specified anything, but the thought of being too early had eaten her even since she left home. She didn't want to seem desperate. They saw each other often at school and even talked every time they saw each other.

_Short and one-way conversations_, she sighed, _but conversations after all_.

She stopped before opening the wooden door, knowing that the bell would announce her arrival as soon as she set foot inside, and she wasn't ready yet.

She didn't even know why she was nervous in the first place. It was a group outing, and Yūgi himself had invited her —which was very surprising— but the simple fact of spending an afternoon with Yami —plus Yūgi— excited her so much that she had to take a deep breath to calm her heart.

It was wrong. She knew it. They had ended at a midpoint with no return, their friendship was not the same as much as she tried her best to recover it, but it seemed not to be the case.

But, she said with a smile. If Yami had agreed to her going, then there was a possibility, right?

A possibility for many things.

The bell suddenly rang, surprising her and causing her to step back a couple of steps, but it wasn't she who activated it.

Instead, and with one eyebrow raised, Yami was watching her curiously.

He felt his cheeks warm up.

"What are you doing just standing there?" he questioned.

There was no mockery or curiosity in his question, but it was enough for Téa to stutter in shame in answering.

"W-Well, I... You know... I was thinking if you were ready," she said, smiling.

Yami sighed.

"I do, but Yūgi is getting dressed," he stepped aside and fell silent. Téa looked at him curiously and he nodded. "Uhm... Come in?"

She widened her eyes, reacting belatedly.

"Yeah, sure!"

_What's wrong with me?!_

Once she was inside, Yami closed the door behind him and guided her inside as much as she already knew the way. Mr. Solomon greeted her with his lively personality and soon they were both in the living room.

The silence was too deadly and awkward, but she took advantage of it to observe Yami a little.

While he was with her, it was quite obvious that his mind was elsewhere. His eyes didn't look at her, but it didn't seem to be on purpose. Instead, it seemed like he was following some point that, even if she tried hard, she couldn't locate.

For a moment it seemed like he was going to say something, but then he stopped.

_ Is he trying to start a conversation?_

She couldn't assure it.

So she did it.

"Uhm... have you been studying for exams?" she wanted to know.

He nodded.

"Yes," he said, but then he realized that he had been very sharp and added. "Above all literature and history. I'm not very good with so much information."

Téa smiled.

"Oh, I like those subjects! If you want, I can come and help you and Yūgi," she offered, taking a couple of steps toward the older Mutō brother.

Yami returned the gesture with a slight curve on his lips, but shook his head.

"I'm sorry, I already have someone," he denied her offer.

"Who?" she asked harshly. It was unintentionally. She cleared her throat and shook her head. "I mean, maybe we can invite that person and the more, the better, don't you think?"

Yami rolled his eyes. Was there reason to do it? Was she being too insistent? Was she bothering him? Because, in fact, he seemed annoyed. Was it for her? She was wrong?

However, as quickly as all those questions appeared in her mind, they vanished when she saw Yami laugh. Suddenly. As if she had said a joke even if she hadn't.

With a smile he tried to hide, he continued:

"I'm sorry," he apologized for no apparent reason before nodding a couple of times. "Yes, I'll tell her. I don't think she want to join though. She's a little shy."

_She?_ Although Téa had been infected by his smile, she was no longer happy. She clenched her fists surreptitiously.

Once again, he seemed to laugh in silence at something. She knew it from the look in his eyes, although she also knew that it wasn't at her, or with her. A "something" and a "someone" she didn't know.

"You know, Yūgi is taking time, I'll go looking for him," Yami said, going toward the stairs.

She stayed there.

* * *

Yami had to take a deep breath a couple of times once he reached the second floor.

Thanks to Mana, his conversation with Téa had been moderately more bearable than the ones they had been having lately, but he thanked anyway when the girl next to him mentioned about Yūgi's delay.

_ "Do you think he got stomach ache or something?"_ commented Mana, glancing at the half-open door of the bathroom. _"It would be very convenient." _

"It would be very embarrassing," he replied, entering the bathroom room.

It was empty.

He sighed and changed direction towards his brother's bedroom. Mana followed silently as she looked curiously around. They almost never passed through that part of the house, so she always took every opportunity she had to study everything closer.

Upon entering the room, they both found Yūgi leaning into his closet with half a naked body.

"Um... Yūgi? Téa is already here... what are you doing?" he asked, stretching his neck a little.

Mana, by his side, just laughed. She didn't look much around, because the distribution of objects and furniture was quite similar to that of Yami's room.

"I'm sorry, brother, I can't find the black shirt I wanted to wear today," he commented before sighing. "It doesn't matter, I'll wear another one."

Yami raised an eyebrow. Had he taken so long to look for a simple shirt and then say it didn't matter? Sometimes he really didn't understand his brother.

Waving a hand in front of his face, Mana caught his attention and pointed toward the desk table next to his bed. A few shirts and jackets were folded in order, probably already washed and ironed by their mother.

He inhaled and exhaled once, and leaned on his right leg as he crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Yugi, relax," he said. "You are not going to any test. Also, you know Téa even before me, what's the problem?"

Realizing what was happening, Yūgi frowned and sat on the bed sighing. He was already wearing a black shirt and some accessories, as always with that punk style of his.

"I know," he agreed. "But even if you and Mana are there, you'll be on your own business at the same time, which would leave me alone with Téa." Yami raised an eyebrow, insistent. It wasn't the first time he would go out alone with Téa. "You know, it's not something I hope you understand. I just don't want it to be awkward. She is my best friend, after all."

_ "Huh..."_

Yami thought that Mana wanted to hug Yūgi at that moment, for she moved until she was facing him, tilting her head and with a conflicted expression.

_ "And yesterday you were so confident." Come on, don't hesitate! You're doing it for me, aren't you?" _Mana encouraged although she knew that Yūgi couldn't listen to her.

So, instead, Yami approached a couple of steps and stretched his arm to pat him on the back.

"You're right, I don't understand," he agreed. "But it will definitely be awkward if only Téa, Mana and I go out since you were the one who invited her. So move your butt at once if you don't want me to drag you with us."

Yūgi looked at him stunned a few seconds before he started laughing.

"Comforting is not your thing," he said between each air intake before getting up and nodding. "I get it. Mana and you must discover something today, then."

"Deal," Yami smiled and prepared to follow Yūgi before stopping at the stairs.

He watched his brother and Téa interact before hearing Mana beside him.

_ "I understand why you want to protect him," _she said_. "He is a lovely boy."_

"Is that why you weren't shocked to see him half naked?" Yami joked with a raised eyebrow.

Mana laughed.

_ "Please!"_ she shook her head before returning to a serious expression as she directed her gaze at Téa. _"And I also understand why you doubt her." _

Yami studied her face.

"Yesterday you said she wasn't that kind of girl."

Mana nodded.

_ "I'm not saying she is bad, but..."_ she shook her head from side to side as if analyzing her words. _"How to say it? Woman's intuition?" _

Yami ended up staying silent. Mana was also incomprehensible in many ways, but he already wanted to keep asking about it.

He knew that, although he wanted to protect Yūgi, he couldn't treat him like a child. They were the same age, after all.

* * *

Upon leaving home, the first thing Mana did was to ask where they were going and, since she wasn't heard by anyone other than Yami, he had to repeat the question aloud.

Yūgi, who wanted to take the answer, took a few seconds to think about it as they crossed the street.

"First let's go to the mall," he suggested. "From there we can decide."

None objected and, while Yūgi and Téa got into a conversation, Yami took a little longer to talk to Mana.

_ "Is Domino City big?"_ she wanted to know.

Yami shrugged and, looking around, replied:

"It's not small," he said. "But from the mall you can reach everywhere."

_"Hm..."_

They both stopped looking at each other at that moment, it wasn't uncomfortable or anything, but it wasn't that they knew exactly what to do. Yami knew, from personal experience, that dates were to get to know each other better —what was going well for Yūgi and Téa at the time, even if they had always known each other— but how to get to know someone better who didn't even know herself?

Mana was an open mystery book.

Being a couple of streets from the mall, Mana suddenly stopped her advance by observing a building that has been built even before they met. There were some gray and white fabrics that prevented seeing the advance, as well as piles of sand and cement to the side.

_ "This place..." _

She was frowning and has her head tilted. Her attention was very fixed on that point.

"Ah! That's the museum, isn't it?" commented Téa noticing Yami's distraction.

Going back the meters they had advanced, Yūgi and Téa stopped at his side.

"A museum?" Yūgi asked interested at the same time as Mana was paying attention again.

Téa nodded.

"Yes, I think they'll open it before summer," she explained and put her index finger to her chin as if thinking about something. "Hum... I think it's a museum of Egyptian culture. I do not remember well."

Yūgi crashed his left fist over his right palm.

"Surely, that's why Professor Hawkins's visit!" he exclaimed and pointed to the Millennium Puzzle. "Do you think they invite gramps?"

Shrugged.

"It's a possibility."

Yami indicated with a glance to Yūgi that he would stay behind and, beginning a conversation to distract Téa, his twin brother began to move forward.

Sighing, he looked back at Mana. She had returned her attention to the museum.

"Are you okay?" he wanted to know. "Does that look familiar to you, or something?"

Mana reacted.

_"I... I don't know,"_ she replied with a fist over her chest. _"It's... It's a different feeling, but I don't know if «familiar» is the word to describe it."_

Yami put his hands in his pants looking around. The place chosen for the museum was quite crowded, as there were different paths that, depending on which one you chose, could lead to anywhere in Domino City.

Places like the main avenue, the train station, the hospital and even the high school or the university street.

"Huh... It's a pretty convenient place to put an attraction," he said.

_ "Yes, surely the one who planned it is someone intelligent,"_ Mana joked before smiling at him. _"People are watching you, we should follow Yūgi and Téa at once."_

Just noticing the sidelong glances and the murmurs around him, Yami shrugged in shame and just continued on his way reaching Yūgi just to buy tickets to the cinema.

He heard his brother tease him a little before asking, quietly, about Mana. He just denied. It didn't seem to have been very important, but...

He looked back at Mana.

She had an expression that said the opposite.


	7. VI

* * *

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS. _**

* * *

The movie wasn't entirely interesting. In fact, the only one who seemed to enjoy it seriously was Téa, who with great interest and concentration, watched the huge screen without even looking away.

Sighing and resting his elbow on the arm of the last seat to the right —so that Mana could see without feeling that she was in the way even if she wasn't— Yami leaned forward a little to nod to Mana with his head toward the nearest exit.

The girl's left eyebrow was raised in questioning and he smiled sideways avoiding being seen by the people in the front. Both agreed: outside would be more fun.

In a whisper he indicated to Yūgi that he would go to the bathroom and, with discretion, got up to go quickly to the door with the green sign on the top.

Mana stretched her arms to the sky once they were out of the show and pursed her eyes in the sunlight that slipped through the glass ceiling.

_"How boring that was,"_ she said.

Yami rolled his eyes with a smile.

"I didn't expect you to like romantic movies, after all," he said, stopping to watch a shop window in one of the stores in the mall.

Mana approached him and leaned against the glass.

_"Aren't you worried that people see you talking alone?"_

He smiled at her. He had an idea for that and it was the reason he had stopped to look at the shelf from the outside.

He entered the store, which wasn't very big, but rather small and looked at all the cell phone accessories that were on the shelves and in the showcases.

Mana continued to admire and look around as a child in a candy store. Really, if she could touch things, Yami would have a lot to worry about.

"Looking for something special, sir?" asked one of the assistants.

He looked away from Mana conscious that she couldn't get lost and nodded.

"Yes, in fact..." he explained what he wanted and, with a smile, the employee guided him to the area he was looking for.

The headphones.

He quickly found an economical one that went with his cell phone, white in color and the appearance similar to the shoelaces.

He thanked after paying for the item and left the store with a bag in hand.

Mana floated behind him and poked her head over his shoulder like a pirate parrot.

_"What is it? What have you bought?"_ she wanted to know.

Yami pulled out the pair of headphones.

"With these, people won't think I'm talking alone," he said, connecting it to his mobile phone.

Mana frowned.

_"Why?" _

"Do you see this thing?" Yami pointed to the only uneven part of the cables, in which there was a button and a small, almost invisible, slit. "It is a microphone. People will think that I am talking on the phone."

Moving away from his shoulder and already noticing that, instead of staring, this time people only gave him a quick glance, Mana marveled at him by showing him in a wide smile.

_"Wou! How magic!"_ she exclaimed. _"Do you do all this for me? You are amazing, Atem!" _

As fast as he felt his cheeks getting hot, Yami started walking around avoiding some people.

"Of course not, it's for my own dignity," he replied, ignoring Mana's laughter. "And my name is not Atem, it's Yami. You should already remember it."

"Yes, yes..." she stopped her usually lively response when her gaze fell on one of the stores they passed through.

Mana squinted and parted her lips slightly, as if analyzing every part of what her brain registered. And then Yami also turned his gaze to the same place.

It was an art gallery.

"Mana?" he called discreetly.

She tilted her head.

_"I—" _

* * *

Mana didn't know what she felt, it was even different from when they passed through that half-built museum, but she knew she felt something.

Something similar to restlessness, for her heart suddenly pounded against her ears. She pursed her lips and her fingers drummed against her thighs. She would have liked to avoid it if possible, but the feeling was so strong that she couldn't even think of ignoring it.

"Come on," Atem interrupted her thoughts, moving ahead of her.

She looked at his back for a few seconds, not very wide or tall, but imposing and striking, before following him with no choice. He didn't seem to pay more attention than necessary and then both entered the local neat.

Mana looked uncertainly about what to do next. The walls were white, but they were adorned with the beautiful and curious pictures carefully placed symmetrically so that none would catch up. There were some shelves and tables, the same color, and the floor was bright wood, which creaked very slightly every time Atem took a step.

And although nothing happened, the sensation remained intact inside her body, keeping Mana alert and her partner notoriously confused, as well as expectant. They both walked around in silence, letting the ambient music fill their ears and relax them while they saw the paintings and sculptures, but, at least for Mana, everything was everything, but relaxing.

Yes, she really enjoyed the paintings, more than one would believe, especially with Atem's company, but as much as she wanted to appreciate the environment, she couldn't. She was looking for something, she felt she was, even if she didn't know precisely what.

However, when her gaze fell on a specific painting at the back of the room, she knew. She knew it because a gasp escaped her lips and managed to get Atem's attention even more.

Then he went there and she followed him two meters apart, without taking her eyes off their destination at any time. She was overwhelmed.

* * *

Yami watched the painting with concentration for many minutes waiting for Mana to say something. At the beginning he hadn't understood it very well, but when he was face to face with the pedestal that held the image at his height, every line and color that seemed out of place took their respective place so that everything took shape.

Then he saw it. In the middle of the image and on the body of one of the people. It was the Millennium Puzzle and was being held by a person of important looks. He was surrounded by seven more people, who wore similar cream-colored robes and who also wore a golden object with a prominent eye except for one, who very similar to Mana, had rumpled brown hair, but she had her back turned on the perspective of the painting while looking at who had the Puzzle.

However, although now everything had form, color and context, Yami couldn't help thinking that something was slipping away. Something that didn't fit.

"Well! It's weird to see young people in this place," said a young lady approaching elegantly. She was taller than him and wore the respective store uniform. "Are you looking for something special, or do you just like to observe?"

He denied

"I'm... here for someone," he said. "Although I don't know if she likes these things either. She hasn't told me anything about it."

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Mana. She seemed very conflicted showing it with her lips pressed in a thin straight line and her head tilted to the right.

"Uoh..." the lady smiled and looked at the painting in front of him. "Unfortunately, even if you are encouraged to buy, it is not for sale."

"It's not?" he was suddenly involved in the subject.

The lady shook her head.

"It's beautiful, isn't it? The colors and mysticism that surround it. It belongs to a collection that will be exhibited before autumn. I bet you would never think that the person who made it is possibly the same age as you."

He noticed that Mana finally looked at them again. With eyes open in expectation and fists clenched in despair.

"Um... the same age?" he repeated looking from the young lady towards the painting and from the painting towards Mana.

The young woman nodded once again shaking the French bun that was picking her hair, she seemed quite excited.

"Yes! He painted the entire collection of The Past in Dreams by himself. Amazing, right? If I remember correctly, his name was—" she grimaced as if she were remembering it and, when she succeeded, opened her mouth, but Mana's sudden scream prevented Yami from hearing her, or, in any case, paying attention to her.

_"Enough! It's too much!"_ she exclaimed, holding her head and shrinking, covering her ears with her forearms and clasping her elbows in front of her eyes. Yami could almost see how she plucked hair between her tight fingers on the back of her neck. _"I don't want to—I can't hear it! I want to leave! I want to leave!"_

She turned on herself and hurried towards the exit.

"Mana!" Yami called her and turned on his heels to keep up with her invisible companion, but not before smiling at the guide as best he could. "Uhm, thanks for the explanation!"

He ignored the confused look of the young woman and ran dodging the few people who came to observe.

Mana left the gallery, the glass door had remained open so she had no impediment and, although Yami didn't need to follow her, he did it anyway. Well, it was more an instinct than a reasoning.

"Mana! Mana, wait! What's going on?!" he held the microphone of the headphones in front of his lips so that people only looked at him superficially, but they still watched him curiously.

That was because he didn't notice the level of concern in his own tone.

She didn't stop.

_"No! I want to leave! Atem, let's go back!"_ she didn't see where she was going or if she was being followed, it looked like a girl making a tantrum, but there were so many emotions that her voice ratted out that Yami knew it wasn't.

Forgetting completely that they were in a shopping mall in the sight of many people —or, rather, forcing himself to forget it—, Yami reached Mana turning in a opposite corner to the one they should take if they wanted to return and took her wrist stopping her advance. Maybe going back to the Puzzle was the best solution for such a crisis, but he couldn't leave her like that.

She tried to let go and shifted in her grip, but he didn't let her go. She didn't look at him and turned everywhere, but he didn't take his eyes off her.

"Mana, stop. What happened?" he asked slowly and directly.

_"I— I don't know! It was too much... too overwhelming! I don't want to stay here, I want to go!" _

Yami inhaled and exhaled deeply to maintain patience and not succumb to Mana's crisis. He nodded to give himself courage and, although the girl continued to whimper, he took the lead and began to walk along the same corner that Mana had decided to take.

People watched him, probably because of the weird pose he was walking in, since he hadn't yet released Mana, but he refused to do so.

_"I want to leave! Atem, I want—!" _

"We're leaving," Yami interrupted her without turning to look at her. "But we're not going home. The day is not over yet, Mana."

* * *

Mana was silent for a few seconds, letting herself be towed by Atem. It was a sensation similar to when they entered the gallery, seeing his back and being so close to him that she could touch him. Admiring him, somehow.

Without knowing it, that gesture was enough to calm the oppressive beats of her heart in her ears, transforming them into another type of pressure.

He swallowed as he looked around. People did not look at her, she knew, but some excuse had to look to explain the heat on her cheeks and the sudden embarrassment she felt.

_"People are watching,"_ she commented, watching the grip between their limbs.

"I know," Atem didn't even turn to look.

Of course he knew. When his eyes weren't on the road, they were fixed on the ground and dodged anyone who crossed his path, but at no time released her wrist even if it was difficult to move at some points.

Although the gesture lacked body heat, Mana felt warmer than ever.

_How strange_, she thought. Any strange or overwhelming feelings had disappeared. She didn't even want to leave, or hide. Now she just wanted to...

She looked at Atem's back once more.

Yes, now she just wanted to stay with him. With whom she felt incredibly safe.

But it wasn't enough.

So, in the midst of all the hustle and all the confused emotions, watching Atem's back and ignoring anything else, Mana knew that she had made a decision.

* * *

Their steps stopped as soon as they reached the top of a small hill that culminated in the path of a park. There were no more than trees and grass where they were, from Mana's point of view, but once Yami arrived where he wanted to reach, the girl's eyes widened as soon as she could.

_"Atem, what is this?"_ she asked, releasing his hand by chance and approaching the edge of the railing that prevented any careless from falling down the hill.

Yami walked to stand beside her. He could understand the surprise and admiration in her expression. He had had a similar one when he discovered that place. The entire center of Domino City was seen almost at its best.

He shrugged with a small smile.

"Well, I'm not sure why they built it, but so far only I have been here and... Well, now you too," he added the last part feeling embarrassed, for some reason.

He unconsciously took a hand behind the back of his neck and looked away.

There was nothing wrong with taking her to that place, but he felt somewhat restless, after all, now it seemed like a date.

Both remained silent for a few minutes. Yami, uncomfortable and Mana, amazed. She looked at the landscape and he looked at her. Now she seemed more relaxed and calm, as if she had suddenly lost that weight she no longer wanted to carry.

And, when 6:45 p.m. arrived and the show began, Yami finally realized that he preferred the happy and lively Mana much more than the thoughtful and silent one, or the hysterical and exalted one.

_"Wou!"_ she exclaimed watching how, little by little, the afternoon light was giving way to the night.

Soon, each place and building began to turn on its lights, the posts did the same even before, and, from where they were, every little detail could be captured on a huge blank canvas.

"Amazing, isn't it?" he leaned against the railing beside Mana.

She was quick to respond.

_"Yeah, like a painting, or a photograph, but... You know..."_ she let a couple of seconds go by silently before adding in a lower and more serious tone. _"I think you are even more amazing, Atem,"_ she said instead.

"Huh?" he looked at her with his lips slightly open. He was so stunned and surprised that he didn't even have time to blush at the compliment.

Mana took a quarter turn to face him, with a really welcoming smile on her face.

_"You've been doing so many things for me. The simple fact of supporting me and taking me everywhere with you is something admirable. I'm really grateful and I would really like to stay this way. With you, forever, or at least until you don't want to,"_ she confessed, bringing both hands to her chest and looking down. _"Because, you know, I was afraid. I was scared." _

"Scared?" he repeated. Mana had never seemed to be, she never showed it.

Although, he recalled, her attitude from the previous night and the one that occurred recently wasn't normal. He understood now.

She nodded.

_"Because... What happens if I'm dead? If I am only a soul that cannot advance to the Afterlife because it left an unresolved issue? I didn't want to find out. I thought staying like this was fine, but..."_

"But...?" Yami urged her to continue, completely forgetting the beautiful view of the city to focus on the beautiful view of a completely determined girl.

_"But it's not enough,"_ she declared, approaching suddenly and taking his hands in hers. Yami understood very well what she meant if she made a gesture as such. _"I want to be able to really touch you. Feel the warmth of your hands and that you feel mine,"_ this time he did blush, for he noticed that Mana didn't realize the intensity of her words. And not only that.

She left his hands free and looked again at the city.

_"I want to remember about me. I really want it now. However painful it may be, however tortuous it may be. I want to know," _she looked down slightly_. "I didn't say it before, but... There was something in that gallery..., no, not in the gallery, but in that painting... It was so overwhelming everything that that lady was saying that now I can't even process it, but I know there is something. In the painting, in its painter. Something... Now I know that I also painted, or so I think. Not professionally, at least,"_ she looked up at him again, letting the emeralds blend in with the amethysts. _"Atem, if there is any probability that I'm alive, I want—"_

"You've been strangely demanding today," Yami interrupted her with a smile before putting his hands in his pockets. It could be the beginning of summer or the end of spring, but the wind in the height was still cold. "I understand what you say, Mana. I'll help you. Not only me, even Yūgi. I'm sure."

_"Really?" _her eyes shone.

He nodded.

"And stop calling me Atem, that's not my name."

Mana laughed.

_"I know,"_ but even if she said that, they both knew she would call him like that. Mana smiled and, with a slight blush on her cheeks that adorned her affectionate expression, ended up adding. _"Thank you, At—" _she shook her head_. "Thanks for everything, Yami." _

And, for the first time in a long time, Yami felt his cheeks blush for something that wasn't exactly shame.

He didn't know from what moment he had begun to think about it, but in his mind the word "cute" was undoubtedly now one of Mana's best descriptions.

Then, his cell phone rang.

* * *

Yūgi cut the call once Yami indicated that they were already returning. Beside him, Téa had a hand on her heart, perhaps worried.

"He was in the park," he said, drawing her attention. "He says he's coming."

She frowned as she sat on one of the decorative benches of the mall. The number of people had increased with the nightfall, but it wasn't a nuisance at all.

"In the park?" she repeated notoriously confused. "What is he doing there alone?"

A smile formed on Yūgi's lips.

"I think Yami really was never alone," he commented, making a joke for himself, which Téa couldn't and didn't make an effort to understand.

Her eyes fell on him as she tilted her head.

"Hm?"

Yūgi shook his head.

"Forget it," he raised his head a little. "Ah, there he is! Yami!"

He raised an arm to be seen quickly by his brother and, once the elder Mutō was with them, Yūgi noticed something interesting entangled in the Millennium Puzzle chain.

"Good idea," he pointed to the headphones.

Yami nodded.

"Yes, so people don't think I'm crazy when I talk to her."

They continued talking about some other things in which Téa couldn't participate, because they had to do with that person she didn't know.

Only Yūgi could appreciate her decayed face and exhausted expression.

He pursed his lips. Sometimes, only sometimes, Yūgi wished not to understand Téa as well as he did.

That was one of those times.


	8. VII

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS._**

* * *

In the days that followed, Yami and Yūgi tried to help Mana find triggers for her memory; however, apart from what is already known and some other things of common sense, they didn't discover much more.

Walking down the busy Domino Avenue, Yami and Yūgi tried to find more familiar places for Mana.

But she didn't even seem interested in her surroundings.

"Hum..." Yugi put a hand to his chin. "Maybe we should go to that gallery you mentioned."

Yami noticed that Mana pursed her lips before looking down.

_"Well, if it's the only option—"_ she began.

"No," he interrupted.

Yūgi looked at him.

"But, brother—"

"No, Yūgi," he repeated, stopping beside him at the corner of a street as some cars passed by. "For now we won't return there, nor to any art exhibition, incidentally."

Of course, Yami also knew that it was the best option to advance that stagnant mystery, but seeing Mana in that nervous breakdown... He just knew that he didn't want to see her like that again unless it was extremely necessary.

Yūgi kept silent for a few seconds and then exhaled as if that answer had already been expected and the traffic light they had been waiting for changed to green for pedestrians.

They crossed.

"I understand," he agreed. "But other than that, we have nothing."

"It's not like that," Yami said before touching the Millennium Puzzle. "We have this," and then pointed forward. "And that."

By directing his eyes to the point he pointed out, Yūgi quickly distinguished the Egyptian history museum that was making its way a few blocks away.

He tilted his head.

"Well, it's true that something has to do with Mana, but I doubt she recognizes it herself, or that we can find it ourselves," Yugi looked at him again. "Also, what do you expect? That they let us in like this, without more? They have not even opened it yet and the inauguration will be only for the guests."

Yami rolled his eyes.

_"Is that museum so important?"_ asked Mana.

"Not really," he replied, dodging a couple of people who were going in the opposite direction. "But it's the first time that something like that is going to open here in Domino City, so they're giving it too special treatment."

"In addition to the fact that the owners are, in fact, direct descendants of the ancient Egyptians, so it's more for an intercultural matter," Yūgi joined the conversation quickly capturing the main subject. "Maybe you are part of them and that's why the connection."

He wore a smile on his expression, so it was a joke, but, at that point, nothing could sound so far-fetched.

When they were crossing the street of the museum, an idea came to Yami's mind.

"What if we see a psychic, or something like that?" he suggested.

Yūgi and Mana raised their eyebrows and curled their lips down, implying that none believed what he had said.

"A psychic?" Yūgi repeated before grinning. "Do you, of all people, suggest something like that?"

Mana laughed.

_"I thought you weren't the kind of person who believes in those scammers,"_ Mana commented.

Yami rolled his eyes again.

"Thanks to someone, I don't know what to believe anymore," he smiled.

And just as they turned in a corner, while Mana murmured a graceful _«__you're welcome» _and Yūgi laughed, Yami was arrived by an old woman with dark complexion and gold jewelry.

"Hm?"

The old woman took him by the arm while frowning and seemed to analyze him with her eyes.

"It must be hard to carry something like that," she commented, scrutinizing him.

"Pardon me?" Yami let go of her grip and backed up a couple of steps.

Yūgi also became alert when the woman took her gaze to him and then turned her back to Yami.

"You may not know it, but you are being followed and she is being followed too," she added quietly as she moved her eyes to the sides, as if she didn't want anyone to listen.

Yami felt Mana tremble and float until she hid behind him. She said nothing, but it was notorious that something disturbed her.

And nothing made it more obvious than when, muttering something, she quickly hid inside the Puzzle, disappearing from his sight.

"What do you mean?" he asked slowly. He had said that he no longer knew what to believe, but neither was he going to believe whatever he was told.

Suddenly, the woman got closer again and stretching her arm, touched the puzzle long before anyone could do anything.

He took a deep breath and opened his eyes wide.

"She... She isn't dead, but she could be, that's why _he_ helped her. Now she is surrounded by white and yet she only sees black. She sees black because she saw something she didn't want to see," Yami and Yūgi shared a look asking silently if anyone had understood correctly.

"Uhm... Could you be more specific?" Yūgi dared to ask.

But then the woman looked up at him sharply.

"And you!" they both jumped on instinct. "You can see her too! Both can! After all, both of you're—"

"Grandma!" a young man interrupted the woman as he approached quickly. "We've told you a thousand times not to run suddenly!"

"Bullshit! This is important!" she exclaimed in response.

The young man took a deep breath. Like the woman, his skin was a tan tone, more likely to be born like that than by the sun, and his eyes were a less bright grayish blue. His hair reached his shoulders and it was a light tone. A strange combination to be from Domino City, although they knew that as soon as they heard him speak, because his accent betrayed him.

He smiled at them.

"I'm sorry if she told you something strange," he apologized, making a forced nod alien to his culture. "Women in my family are not normal."

The old woman snorted.

"What happens is that you are like your grandfather, with a closed mind," she said.

"Uhm... Gypsies?" Yūgi let out with a smile.

The young man laughed. Yami didn't know how to return to the previous topic of the conversation.

"No, not at all," he shook his head as he watched them, stopping a little longer in Yami, or rather in the Millennium Puzzle. "By chance, are you perhaps relatives of Solomon Mutō?"

"Huh?" Yami and Yūgi looked at each other.

"We are his grandchildren," Yūgi answered. "How did you know?

"I just guessed" the young man pointed to his own chest, implying that he had known it after seeing that golden pyramid. "I will tell you something, as compensation for the inconvenience caused by my grandmother," the woman complained between her teeth. "I invite you to the opening ceremony of the museum."

"Huh?" Yami raised an eyebrow. "Sorry if we suspect a little here."

The young man laughed again.

"I think it would be normal," he nodded without looking offended at all. "To be honest, my family had already thought about inviting your grandfather to the ceremony, and now we have one more reason. Of course, you can bring one companion each."

"Excuse me, but who exactly are you?" Yūgi wanted to know by skipping the 'introduce yourself before asking for presentations' rule.

The young man tilted his head as if he didn't know what to say. Then he remembered that he hadn't introduced himself.

"Oh, right! What a bad education of mine," he teased and extended his hand in front of Yami. "My name is Marik Ishtar and my family owns the museum that will open in the coming weeks," he let go of Yami's hand and proceeded to greet Yūgi, then stepped back. "So what do you say?"

The curious situation had displaced Yami enough to worry about something more than what the old woman said. To be honest, he wasn't at all interested in going to the museum, but he couldn't say it when Yūgi nodded twice.

"Of course. We will both go."

"Yūgi?" he frowned at his brother, asking about his action, but only received a hard look together with an elbow in the ribs.

"Great," Marik smiled. "Then I will tell my sister. She is in charge of organizing all those things."

With a smile and a nod, both couples took different paths to their respective destinations, but not before hearing a little more about something that did not involve them at all.

"... I told you not to tell people their fortune just because," Marik scolded his grandmother.

The woman was quick to respond.

"I had to do it! It's important if they don't want her to disappear," she explained. "In addition, we must also tell that man."

Yami frowned and made a gesture to Yūgi to stop his advance.

Marik exhaled.

"Aha... Don't try to put Ishizu's boyfriend in this, please. He already has enough problems."

"But I'm telling you..."

Then both disappeared around the corner.

Yami and Yūgi were silent and concentrated waiting to hear something else, but the sound of cars and people in general prevented them.

They both looked at each other.

"Do you believe that...?" Yūgi started.

Yami shrugged.

"It is probable."

He watched his puzzle. He knew that Mana had heard everything said, so he waited for her to comment on something, or left at once since she didn't like being there, but nothing happened.

After a few minutes in total silence, Yami ended up exhaling heavily.

Yūgi nudged him gently in the arm telling him to move forward.

"Give her time to get home," he suggested. "It must be hard to hear things like that."

Yami nodded with a few seconds of meditation. He just hoped nothing weirder would happen.

* * *

Making the bell of the game store ring, Yami and Yūgi announced their return to their grandfather while he was passing a rag to the cash register.

"Oh, how was it?" greeted his grandfather with a smile.

Yami shrugged.

"I'd say normal, but it wasn't like that."

Although he didn't understand well, his grandfather smiled amused. Yūgi began to tell him some more things while Yami decided to go to his room to prepare his things for a bath. All the way, in which he crossed the room, climbed the stairs and crossed the hall, Mana didn't even emit any sound, which made Yami worry enough.

Sitting on his bed, Yami removed the chain from his head and took the pyramidal object in his hands and then stared at it for a few seconds.

"Mana?" he called her. "Mana, are you alright?"

_"Ugh... No, how can you think I am?!"_

Suddenly, as if he had pressed a button, Yami had to lean back on his elbows when a very exalted Mana came out of the Puzzle.

"Mana, calm down," he said, straightening his back.

_"That calm me down? How can you ask me that? As much as I try to understand what that woman said, I can't! Could she see me?! Was she even in all her mind?!"_

The girl took her head and ruffled her own hair with despair included in her movements.

Yami had to get up carefully and discreetly to not bother her anymore.

"Calm down, I don't know if she saw you, or not, but she said you weren't dead. Isn't that a good thing?" he tried to help.

But Mana just turned sharply toward him.

_"Yes, she said that! But what's up with that 'she's being followed too'?! And all that black and white riddle?! I don't understand, At—Yami!" _

He sighed so he wouldn't lose his temper and end up screaming at the wind. Mana, on the other hand, was breathing heavily, demanding that her brain find a logical solution to everything the woman had mentioned.

He rolled his eyes and left the Millennium Puzzle on the desk, so Mana shouldn't be able to follow him to the bathroom.

Yami took a towel from his closet and looked for his pajamas under the pillows.

"I'm going to take a bath," he announced, ignoring the obfuscated Mana.

* * *

_"What—?! Oh, for God's sake!"_ she sat on the bed —or pretended to do— and rested her forehead in her hands.

The woman had made her nervous. She hadn't felt literally observed, but she felt that someone had suddenly searched inside her.

And she didn't like it at all, it was like having the answers in front and not being able to reach them.

She felt frustrated.

Then, as she denied herself, she heard the door open and steps enter.

She exhaled.

_"Really, I don't understand at all, Atem!"_ she exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, Mana, if you're here," but it wasn't Yami who answered her.

Mana looked up confused only to see Yūgi crossing the small room until he was in front of the desk.

She inclined her head. What was he planning to do?

"Look, for a while I was wondering what would happen if I..." he took the golden pyramid in his hands and quickly located the chain.

He didn't give time for anything else when he hung it around his neck and then...


	9. VIII

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS. _**

* * *

When Yami turned off the shower faucet and placed the towel around his neck so that the cold drops didn't bother him, the sound of Mana's laughter reached his ears as meolodiously as strangely.

His eyebrows frowned in an unconscious act and he looked at the door he had to cross to get to his room, what was Mana laughing at?

He quickly put on his baggy pants and left the bathroom. His steps were at medium speed, but with confidence, and once he was in front of his bedroom door, Yūgi's voice could also be heard clearly.

"... And then, he just said 'hello!' as if nothing had happened seconds ago!" said his brother, recalling an anecdote from last summer.

He heard Mana giggle.

_"Really? He'd never told me that!" _

He relaxed his shoulders, of course, it was just Yūgi talking to Mana...

_One moment_, Yami opened his eyes when he barely closed them to exhale. He ignored the feeling of relief and entered the room without warning.

The conversation was being very fluid, too much to be one way, and besides...

Both, who were face to face, suddenly turned in his direction, somewhat surprised only to then smile.

Mana floated beside him with an unusual emotion.

_"Guess what! Yūgi can see me now!"_ she exclaimed as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

For a moment, Yami could only tilt his head and gasp without actually saying a word and, in his confusion, Yūgi laughed.

"She is exactly how you described her," he said.

Still dumbfounded, Yami wanted to know.

"But how?"

"I think it's because of this," Yūgi replied, lifting the Millennium Puzzle from his neck.

"Really?" Yami squinted and approached his brother. "Why hadn't we thought about it before?"

Yūgi shrugged.

"I don't know. Since you told me about the event before completing it, I had wanted to try it, but the opportunity didn't happen and I eventually forgot," he confessed.

_"And it wasn't until we met that old lady that you remembered it, right?"_ Mana added becoming part of the conversation before approaching the shortest of the three. _"Wou, it's great to be able to talk to you finally!"_

"I think the same," Yūgi smiled and looked back at Yami, a little more serious than before. "But, unlike you, if I take it off, Mana suddenly disappears. Strange, right?"

Yami put his hands in the pockets of his pants.

"Like everything around us," he said after sighing. "Do you think it works with grandpa too?"

"Hum... I have no idea. Do we try?"

Before Yami could answer, Mana came forward with an enthusiastic 'Yes!' and left the room being followed by Yūgi. They both got into a conversation, then, in which Mana mentioned how much she wanted to talk with their grandfather about history.

Yami smiled slightly when he saw Mana's mood in the clouds again before stopping for a couple of seconds in the hallway with a frown.

He was happy, wasn't he? Sharing Mana's mystery with Yūgi was great, but ...

Why was he suddenly in conflict?

_"Are you okay?" _Mana pulled him out of his meditation by tilting her head very close to his.

Yami took a half step back, surprised, and swallowed.

"Yes," he choked on his own words, so he cleared his throat a little. "I am."

Mana smiled at him before returning to Yūgi's side, leaning a little towards him and fiddling around him too excited and curious to remain still.

Yami forced himself to inhale and exhale several times to return to himself.

And now what was wrong with him?

* * *

With a little conviction, it wasn't difficult to make his grandfather put the puzzle as a pendant in the middle of the store, however, unlike Yūgi, there was no change in what he saw around him.

The good thing was that, with that discovery, another came to light and now Mana could move more freely among those who could see her. Of course, for this, Yūgi should be using the Puzzle and Yami shouldn't.

This certainly remained a mystery. Well, there was no logical reason why only the Mutō twins could see Mana, but, as with the rest of the illogical things that surrounded them, they soon forgot to look for a reason and simply focused on continuing to seek answers about the protagonist of the enigma.

That's how Yami, who was alone at the moment, came up with something.

Domino High wasn't a unknown school. In fact, it was one of the most recognized —if not _the_ most— within its city. It was large and spacious, full of talented students like others in the pile.

Yami considered himself one of those who stood out for nothing but his appearance. He wasn't the top in the notes or in sports, or in the arts, but he knew who they were and they should know others.

Silently observing the canvases inside the room, Yami toured the art club the school had. Every paint, every stroke and every color was good. Striking and mostly original, but ...

There was none like the one in the gallery.

"You are..." he heard behind him. "Yami Mutō, class 1, aren't you?"

He turned slowly trying not to lay anything down and nodded, in front of him, a middle-aged woman, with her hair in a messy bun and a white apron dotted with different colors, was standing next to the board.

Her eyes covered with glasses watched him for a few seconds, she turned her attention to the paintings. In particular to one that was exactly the same as a cloudy sky.

"Do you like art?" the teacher continued blowing her shoes while she was beside her.

Yami shook his head.

"Not in particular, but there is a girl..." he cleared his throat when he noticed what it sounded like. "There is a girl who does like it and, well, I would like to know if you know her."

The teacher watched him with her eyebrows raised and her head tilted, looking slightly surprised at the words.

"Oh! At first glance you don't seem to be of that kind of boy," she commented with a chuckle.

Yami blushed. Of course he wasn't, but the situation warranted it. Luckily neither Mana nor Yūgi were with him at that time, he couldn't bear their teasing as a couple.

Crossing her arms and leaving her giggle in just a sympathetic smile, the arts teacher continued.

"Then something that makes it easier for me to know who she is?"

"Hmm... Her name is Mana," he replied without delay, unsure if it was okay with what he said.

The woman looked at him for a few seconds in silence.

"Just 'Mana'? Doesn't she have a last name?"

"I asked her the same thing," he let it slip out rolling his eyes in an unconscious act and, hearing another giggle from the woman, he blushed slightly and looked away again. "Well, that's why—"

"That's why you're here," the female teacher nodded, walking to her desk, then taking out a file with many papers inside. "So you only know her name... It's going to be a little difficult if she doesn't study here, but I'll do what I can."

"Hum... Thank you."

The woman waved a hand downplaying it.

"Oh, don't worry, it's very sweet of you to be interested in art for the girl you like," Yami didn't have time to deny anything when the teacher just continued. "But don't focus only on her art, okay? There are many talents out there. Moreover, you should try it too, there is a boy—"

Yami interrupted the rambling of the teacher with a gentle denial of the head. The last time he had painted was when he went to elementary school and his drawings were not exactly what one would call art.

"Thank you, but I'm fine with just looking."

"Oh, so you're like that too!" the teacher scoffed with mock innocence before nodding. "It's ok, it's fine. Come back tomorrow at the same time, after the exams, okay?"

With a nod and the time change bell ringing, Yami said goodbye to run to his class, meeting Yūgi and Mana on the way.

"Where were you?" Yūgi asked as soon as he saw him.

"Finding out something," he replied simply.

Due to the time, his brother didn't insist more and crossed the corridor to go to his respective class. Mana stayed by his side this time.

_"And you found out what you wanted to know?"_ Mana wanted to know.

Yami smiled at her.

"Maybe tomorrow."

_"Like your literature test."_

"Don't remind me that."

Mana laughed and they both headed for Yami's classroom. None noticed that the problems, quite apart from the exams, were just beginning.


	10. IX

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS _**

* * *

Although Yami didn't want it, both Mana and Yūgi insisted on accompanying him to the art club when they finished exams that Tuesday.

The classroom was still empty, but some paintings had changed places regarding their location the day before.

Mana floated between canvas and canvas watching with affection each work that appeared before her.

_"Uh... This is good,"_ she pointed with her index finger the cloudy sky that Yami had seen before. She had a smile on her face, but soon she pursed her lips in a straight line and tilted her head. _"But..." _

"But...?" Yūgi also approached. "Is there something wrong? I see an exact replica of the sky at this moment," he commented, exchanging his gaze between the canvas and the open window.

Mana nodded.

_"Yes, it is exactly that,"_ she replied, smiling again. _"You know? Art is about interpreting, not copying. I'm not saying that It's bad. It's really beautiful, but I don't see much of his 'me' in his painting, if it's a 'he'."_

At some point in what Mana said, Yami felt a _déjà vu,_ which made him smile.

There was no doubt about Mana's taste for the arts.

"Huh... Now that you say it..." Yugi put a hand to his jaw and squinted like a critic and nodded. "I think I somehow understand what you say."

While the three leaned close to the painting to appreciate it a little better, none noticed the teacher entering the classroom with a pair of notebooks in her hands.

"Oh! Now there are two Mutōs!" she suddenly jumped as she surprised the pair of brothers.

Mana could only laugh.

_"I like her!" _

"How funny," Yami rolled his eyes with a slight smile.

"We are twin brothers," Yūgi also commented with a smile before pointing at himself. "I am Yūgi, by the way."

The woman nodded, smiling and adjusting her glasses on the bridge of her nose.

"Oh, I see! You surprised me!" she laughed. "So... Yami, you're coming for your answer, right?"

Yami nodded and the teacher approached her desk to open each drawer one at a time until she found the third. From there, the sound of some moving sheets filled the silence of the classroom —seconds in which Yami and Yūgi could only exchange a glance— so that she took out a single paper.

"I personally don't know any Mana," the teacher said, then, making their hopes diminish. "There is no one enrolled in the school with that name, and no one in an arts academy in recent months, but I know someone who may know who this girl is."

"Seriously? Who?" both twins asked at the same time making Mana and the teacher laugh.

"Don't despair, he should be here in—" at the same time she looked up at the clock on the top of the living room wall, someone knocked on the door, noting his white hair through the middle window. "Oh, that must be him."

Once again, Yami and Yūgi shared a look ignoring the fact that, every second, for some reason, Mana backed up a little more.

When the boy poked, the one who recognized him most quickly was Yūgi, but the teacher soon arrived to the middle of the classroom and signaled them to come closer.

But none did. Probably for the same reason.

A _very_ strong chill ran down their spine as if they had felt it themselves, but they hadn't. That feeling of uneasiness and fear didn't come from themselves, but from the person to whom they were connected in some way.

Mana, who by that second had already hidden at the bottom of the Puzzle.

"What are you waiting for? He is Ryō Bakura, from class—"

"Hello, Bakura," Yūgi said, raising a hand.

The boy with white hair and red eyes smiled at him as only he could.

"Yūgi! I didn't know you were interested in art," he exclaimed, taking a few steps toward the younger Mutō.

Yūgi shrugged.

"Well, a little bit? The truth—"

Yami cleared his throat to get attention and, incidentally, interrupt Yūgi. His eyes met his brother's for a thousandth of a second, but it was enough.

"Oh, that's right. He is Yami, my brother, did you know him?" he introduced him in an impromptu manner and ignoring the confused arts teacher.

"Sure, I remember," Thet both clasped their hands in a friendly greeting. "Did the book serve you?"

Yami nodded.

"Somehow," he said, releasing his hand.

"They were both watching your painting, Bakura," said the teacher, getting into the conversation and pointing to the reflection of the sky. "You see? I told you it was good!"

The boy put a hand to the back of his neck and looked away looking ashamed.

Yami was surprised that it was his painting.

"Oh? It's yours?" but it was Yūgi who expressed his thoughts.

He nodded only once.

"It's not good enough though—"

"Nonsense!" interrupted the teacher looking for something in her drawers again. "You know, Ryō is very good at painting even if he denies it. So much that some of his works will be exhibited in an art exhibition of the Academy in late summer!"

At the same time she said that, she found what she seemed to be looking for and showed it to the twins, which was apparently a kind of two-sided brochure.

Yami took the paper in his hands. It was colorful, but at the same time serious and sober, it identified much what it presented.

"The art exhibition?" Yami read some words from the booklet, his eyebrows frowned at the same time, remembering what was said by the young gallery assistant.

"Yes! Why don't you attend, huh? Maybe and you find the girl they are looking for," said the teacher oblivious to the worried expressions that Yami and Yūgi had on their faces.

Both brothers shared another of those glances in which they could understand each other's thoughts.

"Are you looking for someone?" asked Bakura with her head bowed.

Yami smiled.

"Yes, ah... More or less," he said. "Hum... Well, we must go now, right, Yūgi?"

The teacher jumped in front of the two.

"Eh? But—!"

"Don't worry," Yūgi cut her, raising both hands. "We'll take care of it."

And as quickly as they arrived, the brothers left the classroom without giving further explanation to the confused teacher and the kind of indifferent Bakura.

* * *

The arts teacher sat at her desk with a pout in her expression and a slightly frown. Beside her, her star student played with the brushes of a metal box while trying to think of the best color for his new painting.

"Then..." Bakura caught her attention. "Were they looking for someone? The Mutō brothers, I mean."

The teacher nodded.

"A girl. They seem to be embarrassed," she exhaled deeply. "And I wanted Yami to do well."

Bakura smiled gracefully.

"What if I look for her? He said she would probably go to the art exhibition, right? I'd like to help!"

His enthusiasm was so high that she simply couldn't help it. Although, somehow, she felt that Yami hadn't wanted to discuss the issue with another boy present, would a little more help not go wrong, or would it?

A smile spread on her lips.

"He only knows her name," she said. "Mana."

For a moment. Just for a second, Bakura's gaze changed. He stopped being friendly and curious to become cold and serious.

But that second went by so fast that no one but himself could have noticed.

"Huh... So Mana, hm..." he mentioned taking a seat on the bench again. This time a smile escaped him. "Interesting."

The teacher ignored the change in his tone and only continued talking about how nice it would be if they finally found her.

Bakura agreed. It would be very nice if they met. Very destined.

* * *

Both took a seat inside his classroom. Yami in their respective place and Yūgi in the front, both of them throwing continuous glances at the Puzzle.

"You too...?" Yūgi asked and Yami could only nod.

"It was something very... strange."

"Do you think they know each other?" His eyes fixed on the space Mana usually occupied when he was present.

Yami shrugged, rested his elbow on the folder and head on his knuckles, and sighed.

"I really don't want to find out," he replied.

Yūgi nodded accordingly.

"Neither do I."

And it was that none had liked that feeling, but they couldn't ask what happened, because Mana didn't leave the pyramid object again.

* * *

It was... dark. Dark, cold and lonely, but at that time she preferred to be there a hundred times than outside.

She closed her eyes tightly and clasped her forehead with her knees, trying, perhaps, to shrink until she disappeared in the middle of that infinite nothingness.

She couldn't remember it, but she knew it. She knew she knew him. She knew that Bakura boy as she knew about art and artists. She could even say that she knew him better.

But she didn't remember him.

And not because she didn't want to. Something obstructed it. Something, or someone, obstructed her line of memories as if it were a huge rock in the road. Everything was blurry. So blurry that she even got tired of trying to remember.

_But why?_

Why did it hurt to try to remember? Or rather, what had been so painful that she couldn't remember?

* * *

As they walked back home, silence accompanied them as if it were an everyday thing, increasing the absence of Mana by their side in large numbers since they left the last noises of the school and its students.

It was when, crossing the pedestrian lines, a few blocks from the game store, that Téa arrived down the stairs leading to her apartment.

Her eyes expressed emotion, very different from the thoughtful twins.

"Yami, Yūgi!" she greeted. "You know, the museum has already announced its opening!"

Reacting, Yūgi smiled.

"Oh yeah?" she nodded.

"Yes! For the guests it is on these next holidays, and for the general public it is in winter. Great, isn't it?"

They both nodded, but didn't say much more. Even Téa felt the discomfort of the environment.

"You know? Now that Téa mentions it," Yūgi raised a hand to his lips. "Didn't grandpa usually say that the Puzzle belonged to a Pharaoh?"

"Seriously?" Téa asked.

Yami nodded, then Yūgi continued

"Yes, and Mana didn't use to call you 'Atem'? Isn't it a name from the Middle East, or from there? Maybe we can ask when we go to the museum."

"Mana? Atem?" Téa repeated more than confused and tilting her head, waiting for an explanation that wouldn't come.

"Sure, you already agreed that we would go with grandpa, it's not like we can refuse now," Yami rolled his eyes.

"I'm just trying to help!" Yūgi laughed.

Téa was silent for a few seconds.

"Um... Guys?" she tried one more time.

Yami smiled slightly at her, suddenly the discomfort of talking to her was gone.

"Do you want to come with us?" he wanted to know.

"Huh... Where?"

"To the opening of the museum!" Yūgi replied enthusiastically. "Yami, grandpa and I are invited."

"And we can take each one to a companion," Yami added, glancing between his brother and the short-haired girl. "It's not like we get together with other people, so if you want—"

"I'll go!" Tea interrupted, raising her hands in fists as if she were suddenly very motivated. "If you invite me, I can't refuse. Of course I will seize the opportunity!"

Yami and Yūgi laughed strangely at their selection of words and their unusual anxiety, only to then continue on their way home.

Occasionally, someone would look at the Puzzle, but soon they would return to the conversation with Téa.

Both still felt Mana's discomfort.


	11. X

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS_**.

* * *

After finishing the exam season, the summer vacations finally arrived and, with it, the opening of the Egyptian museum in Domino City.

The heat was very annoying, even with the sun setting, Yami really had no pleasure in putting on a long-sleeved shirt under a dark-colored suit. However and thanks to some God, grandpa told them that formality wasn't so necessary, so, although they still had to wear the suit trousers, the coat was completely removed from the outfit.

_"You look good,"_ Mana said, standing in front of the full-length mirror in his room.

Yami smiled thanking her and proceeded to tie his tie. Mana hadn't commented on the incident with Bakura and neither he nor Yūgi had insisted or tried to bring it up again.

She, on the other hand, hadn't refused to continue looking for signs of her past, but now she seemed much more attentive and discreet to anything that could cause her the same restless feelings.

A couple of knocks were heard at the door only to later be opened by his grandfather. Solomon had no problem wearing a full suit that afternoon and his usual graceful smile didn't seem to say otherwise.

"Oh, Yami, you look great!" he exclaimed, opening the door completely. "Yūgi is ready, will you take someone else, or...?"

"Yes, in fact, we invited Téa," he interrupted, approaching before looking at the clock on the night table. "She should already be arriving."

"Then we are sure to meet her on the road! Let's go!" his grandfather didn't have him time to comment when he put his hands on Yami's back and started pushing him toward the hall.

He heard Mana laugh and he himself had to smile when he noticed how excited his grandfather was about the museum.

And, as he had mentioned, Yūgi was already in the living room with a bottle of water in one hand and stretching his shirt collar a little, as if it was hanging him, with the other.

A greeting smile crossed his lips.

"I thought I was going to go alone with Téa," he teased.

_"Oh, I bet it wouldn't bother you,"_ Mana said, watching the reaction of the lesser Mutō amused.

Despite the notorious blush on his brother's cheeks, Yami managed not to laugh and waited for Yūgi to be placed on his right side, as usual, for some reason.

"Wait a minute, wait! Wait!" they heard the voice of their mother from the top of the stairs, who came down with one hand on the railing and with the other holding a camera. "If I don't take a picture now I will regret it later. Get ready!"

Both Yami and Yūgi rolled their eyes with a smile. His mother pointed to Yūgi's chest, then.

"Are you going to wear that, Yūgi? Don't you think it's a bit strange?" she meant the golden puzzle.

Yūgi pursed his lips thinking of a convincing answer, but it was his grandfather who answered before.

"Don't worry, dear," he said to his daughter-in-law as he waved his hand carelessly. "It goes with the subject, I also bet that nobody expects to see it there."

"I see..." their mother inclined her head without thinking about the relevance of the object.

"Right! Why don't you come too, mom?" Yūgi asked, but their mother shook her head as she began to watch through the viewfinder of the digital camera.

"I have to work, but have fun for me, okay?" she leaned her body slightly forward. "Well, smile!"

It took a few seconds to press the shutter button. Seconds in which Yami could appreciate a thoughtful Mana with a conflicted expression.

However, after the flash went out, she smiled at him.

_"Don't worry," _she said._ "Next time I will surely appear too!" _

Unconsciously he returned the expression.

"I'll be looking forward for it then," he replied to the confusion of his grandfather and mother, and to Yūgi's amusement.

"Huh..." his brother elbowed him in the ribs with a sideways smile. "I'll be looking forward for it too."

"Shut up, Yūgi."

Yūgi laughed at the unusual embarrassed Yami just before saying goodbye to their mother and taking his grandfather's arm to walk alongside.

The path didn't get long, but quite the opposite after crossing into Téa a couple of blocks from the game store. She wore a simple dress, but pretty. Her high heels made her look taller than normal, but it didn't seem to be a problem.

She even wore makeup, noted both Mana and Yami.

* * *

While four of the five present got into a fun and entertaining conversation, the last and invisible presence was silent admiring those who she could now consider her family.

On one side was grandpa. Stubborn and funny, very talkative and charming at the same time. Mana could spend hours listening to him speak even though Yami used to say that he had already told the same story about ten times.

Then there was Yūgi. Sweet and friendly, contrary to Yami in many ways, but very similar in others. He was the younger brother who she knew she didn't have and whom she liked very much as a friend.

And, last but not least, _Atem_. Yami Mutō, the one who had known to be patient and calm her in times of crisis. The one for whom her heart — if she could say so —was beating warmer.

A smile crossed her lips as she remembered the night of the alleged date, but as quickly as it appeared, it left, leaving her with an incipient concern.

She pursed her lips as usual and took a breath. She couldn't deny it, she was afraid of losing them. She was afraid of moving forward without them, or on the contrary, of being left behind.

She didn't know what they would find in that museum, but she knew it would be a key piece in both her past and future.

And in _their_ present, perhaps.

"Are you okay?" Yami asked almost in a whisper. She hadn't realized that she was no longer advancing.

His amethyst eyes looked at her worried.

She forced herself to nod a couple of times.

_"Yes, just... I got distracted,"_ she replied, making her way again before the Puzzle separation range took action.

_Atem... _No. Yami watched her silently and with a raised eyebrow.

"Seriously?" she nodded again and he stopped, so Mana was forced to turn around too. Yami's expression suddenly softened a little, enough to show a smile. "If you feel bad, just tell us, okay?"

And that was enough for every Mana's concern to move to the background. She wanted to solve things as quickly as possible.

Because she wanted to hug Yami for every word he had given her to reassure her.

Of course, neither of then had a way of knowing that this smile didn't just affect her. Since beyond Mana, where Yami's eyes didn't want to focus, there were another pair of gray-blue orbs, which, from time to time, cast sidelong glances at the elder Mutō.

* * *

Already in the museum, which was crowded enough to have to keep an eye on every step he took, Solomon spotted his best friend just by taking a look at the crowd that looked at old stones with hieroglyphs inscribed on them.

He warned his grandchildren not to break anything and went to chat with Professor Hawkins, just then someone caught Yami's attention.

"Ajlan," said Marik, reaching his side with a smile and a raised hand.

Téa, Yami and Yūgi looked at each other trying to find out if anyone knew anything, but it was Mana who, with a smile, replied:

_"Ajlan wa salan,"_ she waved a hand before remembering she couldn't be seen. _"Oh, he is welcoming you in Arabic." _

"You can speak Arabic?" Yūgi asked surprised without noticing that Marik was smiling amused.

"Of course, I'm Egyptian, do you forget it?" he answered as if the question was for him.

This provoked a series of questions towards Mana. If she also knew Arabic, did she come from Egypt? However Mana shook her head assuming what they were going to ask.

_"I think I studied it somewhere. I am not an expert or anything,"_ she hurried to say.

"I see you decided to come at the end of the day," Marik commented with a glass of champagne, they supposed, between his fingers. "My sister will surely be happy to meet the grandsons of Solomon Mutō."

"Ahm... Your sister?" Téa dared to ask, even if she didn't understand most of the conversation.

Marik looked at her with a pleasant smile before answering.

"She and her boyfriend are the owners of this museum," Mana reacted to what was said, for some reason, and squinted.

For a few seconds, Yami worried, but there was no fear or despair. Only interest and curiosity on the part of the puzzle girl.

A curiosity that could distinguish very well.

Excusing themselves after a few minutes of talk, Yami, Yūgi and Téa proceeded with the tour of the museum until they reached a less crowded area. There were people, but nothing seemed to attract much attention.

Nothing but a strange illuminated table surrounded by a few people. Among them, a woman with long black hair and dark complexion, with a facial similarity to Marik.

Without really thinking, the three, plus Mana, approached.

The woman began to tell about what the table showed and represented. Something about an ancient game that the pharaohs used to use for training with their priests, or something like that; however none other than Téa was paying real attention.

"Do you think she knows anything?" Yūgi asked quietly, leaning a little towards him to be slightly more discreet.

Yami shrugged.

"Hope so..."

Meanwhile, beside him, Mana had been watching silently. With a look that seemed to have a lot to say instead of shutting up.

It was obvious to the twins that something had made her react beyond the museum itself.

And perhaps that was that her eyes met the woman's directly.


	12. XI

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS. _**

* * *

When the woman finished talking about the table, with a simple gesture she told everyone to continue their tour while she disappeared quickly behind a service door.

Nodding more for himself than for his companions, Yami decided to approach that stone table with enough carvings on it. It didn't give him a special sensation, not exactly, but in the same way he could appreciate each engraving, especially of the Pharaoh who, he noted, was too familiar.

Téa, at his side, tilted his body a little to observe more closely. Her frown and eyes went from the table to Yami, and then from the table to Yūgi.

"Hey, I don't know if it's just me, but don't you three look very similar?" she pointed at the object.

Yūgi did the same approaching, as did Yami and Mana. The ruffled-haired girl gasped without being able to express her thoughts well, but for Yami, who had suddenly realized that he knew her better than he supposed, it was obvious: it had a similarity to that gallery's painting.

To the painting that had disturbed Mana.

With both eyebrows raised and lips slightly open, Yami silently asked Mana if she was well.

She didn't take her eyes off the table when she spoke:

_"Atem..."_ she said with total yearning and appreciation before pointing her index finger to the one similar to the twins. _"I'm sure. He... Atem."_

"Atem?" Yami repeated, looking back at the object on display.

"The Pharaoh there is called 'Atem'?" asked Yūgi, squeezing his hand over his Millennium Puzzle.

Téa looked at his friends with an expression that said all the confusion she was feeling at the time.

"Huh?" she frowned and looked at the legend written on the side of the table. A graceful smile adorned her face a few seconds later. "Pff... What are you guys talking about? The one here is the Nameless Pharaoh. You know, who sacrificed himself for the sake of Egypt..."

_"That's_ _him! He's Atem! His name is Atem!" _Mana answered repeatedly as if Téa was going to listen to her. _"I know! I know it and I bet Marik's family knows it too! His name is Atem!" _

However, before anyone could say anything else, the female voice that had been speaking minutes ago interrupted them while standing next to the table.

Her expression was hard and somewhat suspicious, with one eyebrow raised and arms crossed over her chest while raising her chin as if she were studying them.

"Effectively. It is the Nameless Pharaoh who is there," she clarified, looking at Téa and then at the twins. "You must be the grandsons of Solomon Mutō, am I wrong?"

Yūgi smiled a little embarrassed and denied.

"Yes we are. I think the hair betrays us, right?" he ran a hand over the back of his neck.

Then the woman's expression softened.

"A little, yes, but I think the Puzzle ends up removing any doubt," she said, relaxing her arms at the sides of her body and leaning on her right leg. "My name is Ishizu Ishtar. Maybe my brother Marik told you about me."

"Yes, he told us you were the owner of this museum," Téa said, unaware of Yami's thoughtful expression.

"In part I am. The truth is that my fiancé is the one who moves all the threads, so to speak," she rolled her eyes and smiled at her own comment before remaining silent for a few seconds. "You... Have something in mind, don't you? Or should I say 'someone'?"

Her blue eyes suddenly moved to an upper corner and Yami heard Mana gasp.

_"She's looking at me," _she said insistently._ "At—Yami, our eyes are meeting!" _

"Ahm... Perhaps you can...?" Yūgi began without encouraging himself to finish. He threw uncomfortable signs with his head toward his closest friend.

Ishizu seemed to understand when she shook her head in a long and almost imperceptible nod.

"Not exactly," she replied. "But yes, I know. The women of my family can see a little beyond normal and try to help those who need it."

"And that's why we hoped you could help us," Yami dared to say, finding a way, finally, to bring that topic into the conversation.

Téa blinked confusedly waiting for an explanation from Yūgi, but he shook his head and told her to better continue enjoying the museum. She, of course, decided to refuse.

"My help?" repeated Ishizu.

Yami nodded.

"Yes, we would like you to explain more about the Puzzle, which has to do with her, and with that one called 'Atem'," he said pointing the table.

This time, although Ishizu squinted, she seemed slightly surprised by what was recently said.

However, before she could say anything, a strong and imposing voice, but without leaving respect and kindness aside, interrupted her.

"May I know where you heard that name from?" asked a tall, handsome-looking man with long, straight dark blue hair and aquamarine eyes.

Mana gasped more loudly as she approached a little.

He wore a gray suit that contrasted very faintly with his light skin, but it didn't take away at all the good appearance he had.

For a moment, as he crossed their eyes with the twins, both were speechless. This man had no strong accent in his pronunciation of Japanese, but he was certainly not a Domino City native.

"Oh, Mahad, what a fright you gave me," said Ishizu, exhaling and stepping back a few steps until she was next to the newcomer and thus preventing him from advancing towards Mana. "Guys, he is my fiancé, the other owner of the museum, Mahad Owston," she looked at her boyfriend with a smile. "They are the grandsons of archeologist Mutō."

"Oh... I see, although that doesn't answer my question," despite the requirement of his comment, Mahad Owston smiled at them friendlier. "So..."

_"Brother?"_ suddenly Mana spoke in an almost inaudible voice. Both Yami and Yūgi looked at her stunned.

* * *

Her eyes began to burn and suddenly lose focus. Apart from the table, apart from _Atem_ and apart from everything she had thought she would find, she definitely never thought that this feeling of familiarity would increase enough to recognize her own brother.

He was. She was sure of that.

Mahad was her dear older brother who was soon to marry the good one of Ishizu Ishtar, an Egyptian who met on one of his many trips around the world to learn the secrets of history. She had accompanied him on those trips from London. She had painted on canvases the many beautiful views she had in her memory. She had smiled with him infinitely and had even remembered the last time she saw him that mid-winter morning...

She almost rushed to hug him with tears falling down her cheeks, but, although she was going to go through him anyway, she couldn't do it, because Ishizu suddenly moved him from where he was.

_Sure_, Mana remembered. _She told me once._

Not that Ishizu could see her exactly. She felt her, felt her presence like that old woman, but at this moment she couldn't know whose soul was floating only a meter away from her fiancé.

Honestly, Mana had thought that this... craziness had been what most attracted her brother, but now she knew that her next sister-in-law wasn't crazy at all.

A lot of other memories began to gather in her mind one after another at such a speed that she didn't completely identify them.

And yet, she knew that there were still many mental gaps that she wouldn't be able to evoke unless she knew the whole truth.

"Then..." Mahad suddenly insisted on Atem's name.

"Huh... A girl we know used to call me that because of the puzzle my grandfather gave us," Yami explained quickly and improvised, interspersing his gaze between her and Mahad. "And, well... in fact we wanted to know about this so-called Atem."

_Oh_, Mana had forgotten. Who was Atem exactly? Why did she feel that Yami had more to do with him than herself?

And, above all, why did she suddenly remember herself talking about him continuously?

Suddenly, her head ached and felt heavy. Many reactions and emotions, in addition to thoughts, in one afternoon were going to kill her.

Mahad caught her attention then bringing a hand to his forehead and sighing tiredly.

"Seriously, Mana doesn't know how to keep secrets," he said.

Ishizu laughed a little.

"Even until now, uh..." her expression changed a little. "Even as she is now, uh..."

However, although what Ishizu said drew more attention from Mana, both Yami and Yūgi focused on Mahad.

"Excuse me, but could you repeat what you said?"

"Do you know Mana?"

Both asked at the same time, making Mana smile funny despite the situation.

* * *

Mahad sighed again before raising his back again. He put a hand to his chest to emphasize what he would say and smiled as fraternally as possible.

"I will introduce myself again. My name is Mahad Owston and the girl you met, most likely, is my younger sister, Mana Owston," he said. "She, well..., used to have dreams about a Pharaoh called Atem, but for the moment we have not found evidence of it."

"A Pharaoh..." Yami repeated.

Ishizu nodded.

"She insisted so much that her dreams were memories of her previous life that we simply couldn't ignore her," she smiled to herself, as if remembering something, though she didn't share it.

Mahad nodded too.

"Personally, I think she suggested herself, since our parents gave her the name of an ancient Egyptian priestess very close to the Nameless Pharaoh, but..." he looked at the table and then at Ishizu. "I am nobody to judge whether it is true, or a lie. After all, her paintings were very realistic..."

"Her paintings?" Yūgi asked looking quickly at Yami. "Is she going to an art academy, or something?"

"This season, no," said Mahad.

"So where is she? Can we know that?" Yami asked suddenly, surprising everyone around him.

Especially Téa, who didn't even fully understand the conversation they were having.

"Don't you—?"

Mahad almost said something when his cell phone rang interrupting his words. He looked at the device and then Ishizu placed a hand on his arm.

"It must be Marik. You see, he doesn't know how to deal with the guests," she said in a moderate tone of voice and looking her fiancé directly in the eye.

Mahad sighed for the third time.

"I understand, then, we'll be seeing each other," he said goodbye to the twins and Téa before answering the phone call.

There was a somewhat awkward silence before Ishizu took a deep breath.

Her expression became more afflicted than hard and she looked at the twins.

"Mana is hospitalized," she said, then, not waiting for the shocked expressions of the brothers.

If she could, Yami was sure that Mana would faint with everything they were finding out on that one day. His amethyst eyes followed the movements of the female to avoid any carelessness, however nothing very worrying happened.

"And if you don't mind, could you tell me when you met Mana?" Ishizu continued, tilting her head. "It's a bit weird that you don't know that fact."

Yami and Yūgi shared a look, doubtful of telling the truth, and yet knowing that lying was not an option.

Mana nodded as if she was giving her consent and it was Yami who answered.

"I—we met her in winter, a little before the holidays," he said, lying only a little. "We have been looking for her since then, to put it in some way, to explain more about this Atem."

Ishizu seemed to understand something while holding a hand to her jaw.

"I see... It was before the accident, I suppose it was impossible for you to know since you obviously didn't frequent her," she seemed to think out loud.

* * *

_"A-Accident?"_ Mana repeated and this time she began to breathe with difficulty.

She felt Yami's gaze on her, but didn't have the courage to return a reassuring smile.

There it was again. That feeling that prevented her from clearly remembering the last events she lived...

That almost overwhelming feeling that Bakura and that gallery had caused her.

She swallowed.

Were they related? She, Bakura, art and the accident?

"Yugi, go with her," Yami ordered before Mana could say anything.

Apparently, he had reached the same conclusion as her.

"Huh?" Yūgi blinked and, unwittingly, Téa felt alluded to.

"Why?" asked the short-haired girl.

"Just go," Yami insisted. "I will reach you in a moment."

Then the smaller Mutō ended up nodding in understanding and, without waiting for Mana's opinion, took Téa's arm and began walking towards another area of the museum.

Mana was forced to follow him if she didn't want to disappear inside the Puzzle.

She closed her eyes and squeezed them tightly.

_What accident?_


	13. XII

**I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS.**

**So, I'll say this quickly: if you love Téa sooooo much, try not to hate me for writing her so out of character in this chapter. **

* * *

After Yūgi took Téa with him, Yami sighed and looked back at Ishizu, who had only been silent so far.

The left eyebrow of the female rose slightly, but didn't ask any explicit questions until she realized that Yami wasn't going to speak.

"You know, I've been thinking about it, but what does Mana or the so-called Atem have to do with what you want help with?" she inclined her head a little.

Yami put his hands in the pockets of his dark pants.

"I really don't know," he shrugged. "But there is something, I suppose. After all, this started when I finished the Millennium Puzzle."

This time it was Ishizu's turn to exhale, which she did as long and slow as possible while she seemed to order her ideas.

"Well, I don't know if it's any use, but you should go visit her at the hospital," she said, taking out a pen next to a notebook of the suit she was wearing. She scribbled some things on paper and then tore off the page to give it to him.

Yami received it with some confusion etched on his face.

"After the accident became public, a lot of people came, but that's over," she smiled slightly. "Now the only ones who visit her are her family, so you should stop by."

Nodding, Yami put the paper in one of his pockets, only then silently observing Ishizu wondering what was the best way to ask what he wanted to ask.

She seemed to notice, so she looked back curiously.

"Something happens?"

He hesitated a little before continuing.

"Er... Well, what happened to Mana, exactly?" he questioned bluntly.

Ishizu facial expression darkened a bit as she directed her gaze to the ground and then to the surroundings, but soon changed to a more relaxed expression by a giggle.

"She has always been an overactive girl," she said. "While transporting her paintings, she tripped on the stairs and hit her head."

"She tripped?" Yami frowned, but avoided mentioning that it was doubtful.

Ishizu nodded.

"Yes. All the paintings she had been working for were shattered. Thanks to that, she won't even be able to participate in this year's exhibition."

"The exhibition?" once again, Yami found himself suspecting something.

But what was it?

"She was going to show her paintings, you know, in which she expressed her dreams about this Pharaoh Atem. She put a lot of effort into it, it would be our first time seeing her paintings too, and... Well... We're all sad about it," although her smile faltered, Ishizu stood firm in what she said before opening her eyes more and expressing an idea that suddenly came to mind. "Oh, you should go too. It's in autumn. The exhibition, I mean. Go after visiting the hospital, okay? It may sound outdated, but I believe in fate and stuff, so..."

She kept talking a little more about the interactions Mana should have while she was in the hospital, but Yami stopped paying attention to her when he heard about the art exhibition.

How many people had told him that he should go? He didn't remember it, but if all that of destiny and coincidences was real, then there was not even a doubt.

He had to attend that exhibition with Yūgi.

Smiling and thanking, Yami said goodbye to Ishizu with a raised hand before heading to look for Yūgi.

His lips were puckered as he analyzed all the newly obtained information. If he added what the old woman had told them, did that mean that whoever was _following_ her was part of her family?

It seemed almost impossible, who would gain what by doing that to someone like Mana?

His cell phone vibrated in his right pocket interrupting his thoughts. When he pulled it out, his brother's name occupied the screen for about five seconds before he was encouraged to answer.

_"Yami, where are you?"_ asked his brother in a low voice. _"Did you finish talking to miss Ishizu?" _

Although Yūgi wasn't seeing him, Yami still nodded.

"Yes, she said some interesting things about Mana," he sighed and leaned against one of the columns that held the museum standing. "Speaking of her, how is she? Hasn't—?"

_"No, she has only been watching the surroundings in silence, but she must already be impatient to hear what you must say,"_ Yūgi interrupted, surely smiling on the other side of the line. Yami didn't have to see him to know, it was his twin after all. _"Ah, but Téa got lost in the crowd. I tried to call her, but she doesn't pick up the phone. If you see her..." _

"I understand, I'll let you know," Yami rolled his eyes. "Anyway, tell Mana that everything is relatively good, and that—"

"Who is Mana?" Tea's voice cut him off as she approached firm steps in front of him.

Yami frowned and lowered the mobile phone even though Yūgi was still on the other side pending the call.

"Téa? What's going on? Why did you leave Yūgi?" he wanted to know. She didn't need to answer though. "Anyway, we should go to—"

"So far you haven't answered," she interrupted him again. Her expression was frowned and her fists clenched. She was upset, very upset and he, although he could sense the reason, couldn't understand it. "For days, you and Yūgi mention someone with that name and you don't explain to me who it is! I'm confused! Hadn't you invited _me_?! Why do I feel that you speak and think of another woman even though I am here?!"

Yami rolled his eyes. He couldn't believe it. At what point had they begun to be a couple so that she had the right to ask for explanations as such? Also, while he did invite her, at what time had he said it was with another intention? Even Yūgi was there!

He had to close his eyes and count to five to avoid answering everything he had thought. Some people were already watching them and he had no intention of making a scene that had no basis to be made.

He took Téa's wrist and dragged her out of the museum. To a street less illuminated, but just as busy as all those that surrounded the place.

It was time to clarify things between the two.

Only they weren't two.

* * *

Both Yūgi and Mana heard the argument from the cell phone and from the other side of the room where they were.

While Mana already knew what Yami was doing and sensed that Yūgi did it too, she couldn't help worrying about both twins.

She watched the smaller Mutō looking at the cell phone screen with an expression that would break any animal lover's heart.

_"Um... Yūgi?"_ she dared to call him.

She tilted her head in front of him and that was when he just reacted.

"I... I already knew, you know?" he said with a smile that seemed to express as much embarrassment as disappointment. "That Téa liked Yami."

_"But he doesn't —Well, I bet he—"_ she was forced to cut each of her sentences. She couldn't tell Yūgi that his brother would never do something he had already done.

Nevertheless...

Mana looked again for Yūgi's gaze and with a confident smile continued:

_"But Yami doesn't like Téa in that way!"_ she assured.

Yūgi looked away to the place where Yami and Téa had left.

"Is that true?"

_"Of course! I bet they're clearing things up now, let's see!"_

If she could have pushed, or pulled Yūgi, she would have done it, but she, who was intangible to the rest of the world, could only wait for her friend to take the initiative to move to her side.

Yūgi gave a chuckle. Maybe laughing at himself, or Mana's energy, but he started walking anyway.

* * *

"I don't know what you've misunderstood, but you've done it," was the first thing Yami said when he left the museum with Téa.

He released her wrist and took a deep breath to calm down. She raised an eyebrow.

"Then are you going to tell me that I heard wrong?" she questioned.

Yami exhaled.

"I don't mean that," he replied slowly. "Mana is someone Yūgi and I are helping."

"All the time?"

"All the time," he said, and then he knew he had to say it differently so that Téa understood what he meant. "And that is not something that should matter to you, Téa."

"Why not? We—?" finally there seemed to be a realization light in her eyes.

"We are nothing, Téa! Nothing! We are nothing and we should never have been," he ended up saying it. Bluntly, clearly and concisely, as he should have done from the beginning. "I agreed to be friends again, but it seems you just misunderstand everything."

"But you invited me out!" she objected, confusing him. "You agreed to go to the movies with me and invited me to come. You even smiled at me earlier today!"

She was so convinced of her words that Yami felt forced to take a step away from her.

"I agreed to go with you _and_ Yūgi, for Mana," he admitted, ignoring the look Tea was giving him. "I invited you to come with _us_, for Mana and..." he took a breath. "I smiled at Mana. Not to you."

"No, there was no one there!" she insisted.

"Maybe for you and grandpa, and for the rest of the world, but for me and Yūgi, there she was. Mana was there. Mana is always there," he said and then avoided looking at Téa. "I know it sounds unbelievable, but it's the truth. I'm sorry, but I, for you, never—"

He was pushed back. Not pulled and almost untouched, but was pushed back.

Why?

Before he realized, Téa was kissing him. Her eyes were closed, but his, no. Yami wasn't even processing everything clearly.

Not until he saw them.

He saw Yūgi and Mana watching them. Both with wide eyes, one more surprised than the other.

Téa slowly separated from him seeing that he wasn't responding to the kiss, but ignoring —on purpose —that fact.

"Didn't you miss that?" she asked in a not-so-low voice, which caused Mana to shake her head desperately and try to tell Yūgi something. "I've done it since summer."

Yami didn't answer. He didn't have to, since he quickly ran towards Yūgi, who was already moving away.

Yūgi now knew. He knew of his betrayal.


	14. XIII

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS. _**

* * *

Although Yūgi trusted his brother and believed in what Mana had said, he really couldn't endure the scene he had just witnessed, nor what he had just heard.

"Yūgi! Yūgi, wait!" he heard Yami calling him from a prudent distance.

_"Yūgi," _Mana, next to him, also did the same, although she didn't seem quite determined like his brother.

And, although he didn't plan to stop, he did. So suddenly that Mana almost went through him if it wasn't because she stopped just in time.

He gave Yami a chance to reach him and only turned when he knew that his brother was a couple of meters away from him.

The night lights illuminated his worried and regretful expression, while some people saw them with a distinguished dissimulation.

"When?" he wanted to know then.

Well, he really didn't want to know. He _needed_ to know it.

"'When'?" Yami repeated with sincere confusion.

Yūgi stomped the ground impatiently and clenched his fists.

"When were you planning to tell me, Yami?" he asked. "When were you planning to tell me that you had something with Téa? That she felt something real for you?"

For a few seconds, Yami could only keep silent.

"I... I didn't plan to," he looked away.

Ironically, Yūgi laughed. He laughed at himself. Sure! How had he not noticed?! Yami was his twin, he knew him better than anyone!

"Always. You are always like that. When will you learn to trust me? I am your brother, for God's sake!" he shouted. .

Yami stretched a hesitant arm.

"Yūgi, I... I'm sorry."

"What are you sorry about? Hanging out with the girl I've been in love with all the time? Or not telling me you did it?" he breathed outrageously, something very abnormal in a passive person like him. His eyes, by chance, landed on Mana and she looked away as she hugged herself. He knew it then. "I can't believe it, you didn't say anything either!"

Before the strong accusation, Mana was startled.

_"Me?! It wasn't for me to talk!"_ she replied sure of what she said.

"Oh, but you empowered me before, didn't you?" Yūgi argued, leaving her silent and Yami confused.

Angry, he took the Puzzle off his neck sharply and threw it straight at Yami, losing his ability to see Mana for the moment.

As soon as he stopped, then, Yūgi began to move away from the place. He needed to be alone and silent. He didn't even pay attention to the constant vibrations that his cell phone, announcing incoming calls, gave him.

* * *

With curved lips down and looking away in case his eyes started to get blurry, Yami had to count to ten so that his mood returned to an acceptable condition.

Mana, next to him, could only look at him with an expression of comfort. Her big green eyes said many things that, for the moment, he couldn't decipher.

_"I'm sorry,"_ she said finally._ "If it hadn't been for me..."_

Yami looked at her. He could get mad at her. Blame her for all the coincidences that had occurred since her appearance, but he didn't. He wasn't an explosive person, much less someone who shouted blindly. All this was due to himself.

What was he thinking? Was he always like that?

With the Puzzle, with Mana and now, with the inappropriate relationship with Téa... Why couldn't he speak clearly with Yūgi when he was his twin brother?

_"At—Yami?"_ Mana called him.

He denied with his head. They had more important things to talk about at the time. The thing about Téa will pass, the thing about Yūgi... He didn't know, but he would have to accept whatever happened.

After all, Yūgi wasn't upset with him for dating Téa, he was upset because he decided to keep it a secret.

In silence, he took the same path as Yūgi to his home, only slower and less excited to arrive.

He hoped that at least his grandfather had fun in the museum.

* * *

Once in Yami's room, he told her everything he had heard from Ishizu without covers and with an impressive reluctance.

His eyes were constantly on the floor, or in the window, and the rest of the house was so quiet that Mana could hear herself swallow.

"... And then, she gave me this," Yami said, leaving the crumpled paper on the bed.

Mana came over to read what he said.

_Room __408\. East Wing of Domino Hospital_.

_"I-Is it...? Do you think that I—?"_ she pointed to the paper and pointed to herself looking at Yami.

He nodded.

"Yes, you're there. Your body is," he said, inspiring and exhaling deeply. "Only your family visits you. Yūgi and I were invited to go, maybe you can—"

_"I want to think about it,"_ Mana interrupted seriously.

"Think about it?" Yami raised an eyebrow, confused.

_"I must think of some things, you know? Not only me…"_ she looked at him, then, trying to make him understand what she meant.

Her... situation may be important, but it wasn't more important.

Yami was just trying to think of something else.

_"Go,"_ she said, calling her attention. _"You have to talk to Yūgi."_

"No, we need time—"

_"It's not like that,"_ she interrupted, leaving the paper in the background and standing exactly in front of Yami. Looking directly at his beautiful amethysts. _"You don't need it. Neither you nor him. You know what you were wrong about and Yūgi knows that you know it. He is waiting for you to go for him properly." _

"Mana..."

_"If you're still sitting here, we're not going to get anywhere. I also need to think about my stuff and, if I can't reach a conclusion, I want both you and Yūgi to help me solve it. Both are important to me, don't you see?" _

In a desperate act, Mana placed her hands on Yami's and squeezed them with the intention of making him understand.

They should only speak. If they spoke, they will understand. She was sure of that, just check it out.

But... Why was she sure of that? And why did she want to check it out?

She pursed her lips and let Yami's hands free to start pulling on his arms.

"No, wait, Mana," he tried to stop her, and forced his feet so she couldn't move him, but Mana didn't give up.

_"I won't let you in until you come with Yūgi,"_ she insisted, changing position to get Yami out of the room.

And, once she got him to be under the threshold, she closed the door tightly so that Yami didn't put up any more resistance.

Then there was silence and her thoughts began to torment her more.

_Talk. Talk. Talk. Talk._

She wished she had talked more with someone. Talk well with someone. No secrets, no false smiles and no regrets in between.

But with who?

And, above all, _why?_

* * *

Yami leaned his back against the door of his room once Mana threw him into the hall. The house was dark except for the small lighting that came from the other side of the house, specifically the crack that separated the door from the floor of Yūgi's room.

He thought of insisting and returning to the safety of his four walls. Mana couldn't even touch things, how the hell had she done to close the door?

_No_, Yami noticed. She hadn't closed it. He had done it himself in an unconscious act.

He sighed realizing that he wasn't going to win anything by running away from the situation, it had been hours since they arrived from the museum, at least they wouldn't be as elated as they were at the time.

He knocked on Yūgi's door a couple of times and waited. It was only about twenty seconds that made him start thinking again about returning to his room with Mana, but then his brother's face appeared in front of him.

He had a raised eyebrow silently asking what he wanted and, once he opened his mouth, there was no turning back.

"I'm sorry," he said at last, but he didn't let Yūgi answer him. "Sorry for never telling you anything. I'm not going to excuse the thing about Téa, it was a thing in vain and that should never have happened. Also when I didn't talk to you about Mana. I always feel that I have to take care of my problems alone and I really didn't want to get you involved in something that…" he shook his head when he saw that he was getting nothing and took a breath before continuing. "I don't care if you're angry, I deserve it, but I want you to know that I'm very sorry and I'll do what I can to change it. It's not that I don't trust you, I do, and that's why I don't want to bother you."

Yami swallowed when he realized that he had said many words, very quickly. Yami wasn't a renowned talker, so he notoriously ran out of air when he finished what he was going to say.

Yūgi, on the other hand, remained expectant, looked serious, but a sparkle in his eyes betrayed his obvious amusement.

Then a slight smile escaped his expression.

He sighed.

"I'm not angry," he confessed. "I'm just... tired, I guess. There have been many things."

"Tell Mana," Yami rolled his eyes and Yūgi laughed.

"She should have a worse time, I should apologize for blaming her too. She's a good girl, I'm glad you like her," Yūgi commented lightly without noticing Yami's surprised expression.

"I like her?" repeated incredulously. "You exaggerate."

Yūgi looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Aha, I do," he ended up saying without interest and soon changed the subject when he closed the door of his room behind him. He leaned against the wood and crossed his arms in front of his body. "Speaking of her, I assume you have already told her some things. I want to know too."

"You sure?" Yami frowned. "Wouldn't you rather be, I don't know, alone or depressed in your room?"

Yūgi shook his head without paying attention to the joke.

"I already told you, I'm not angry or sad and, if I were, it wouldn't matter, because I want to help Mana. It has nothing to do with you, Mr. Arrogant."

Surprised and graceful, Yami recalled that Mana, at the time, also called him that. Those were coincidences of fate he liked.

Then, after analyzing it in silence, Yami began telling him the same he told Mana, but more summarized and less detailed. In particular, he highlighted the part of the accident and about the hospital.

"Is she in a coma?" Yūgi wanted to know as they headed to see Mana.

Yami shrugged.

"I didn't ask, but I assume she is."

"Should we go?" continued the younger twin brother. "I mean maybe she is in that state because she doesn't have her soul, or something like that? Maybe she will wake up, haven't you thought about it? Besides that we could find the one who is following her, or what the old woman said."

"I thought the same, but it depends on Mana. She ... I don't know what she wants."

They both stopped at the door of Yami's room and looked at the knob, wondering if it was a good time to enter. It hadn't been many minutes since Yami left, but Mana could be a little anxious.

Then, counting to three in his thoughts, Yami opened the door and entered with Yūgi following in the footsteps.

And the first thing Mana said to see him was:

_"I don't want to go to the hospital. Not yet."_


	15. XIV

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS. _**

* * *

"What?" Yami asked surprised.

_"I don't want to go to the hospital,"_ Mana repeated confidently before fixing her eyes on Yūgi and smiling.

Mana parted her lips again to add something else, but Yūgi interrupted her unintentionally.

"Hm? Did she say something?" Yūgi questioned, moving his eyes from side to side, perhaps looking for her.

However, he soon stopped with a shrug and a slight sigh.

Yami recalled, then, that Yūgi couldn't see or hear her without the Puzzle hanging from his neck.

Relaxing his shoulders and at a moderate pace, Yami walked to the nightstand next to his bed and took the ancient object in his hands. And, although he still felt doubtful about Yūgi's feelings, he didn't think about it anymore when he threw the Puzzle straight into his hands.

As he could, and reacting in a surprised way, Yūgi caught the pendant alone from the chain and looked directly at Yami. He could only nod at the same time that Mana floated next to him and then back to Yūgi's side.

"Why don't you want to go?" Yūgi asked once he had heard the whole story from both sides.

Yūgi had taken a seat on the bed while Yami decided to use his desk chair; Mana, on the other hand, remained alarmingly distant and with her body supported —if it could be said that way— on the windowsill facing outwards.

She took her time to respond, frowning and biting her lower lip as if she were looking for the exact words that could accurately describe her thoughts and emotions.

Then, after what seemed to be hours of silence, but they were only distracted seconds, Mana took a breath and then exhaled.

_"Everything is... confusing,"_ she said barely audible and leisurely. Then she put her hands to her head and avoided looking at them. _"Everything. Everything is confusing. So far I have been able to remember most of the things. About my family, about my studies, my passions and my past, but there is something... obstructed. Yes. Something that doesn't want to be unlocked no matter how much I try."_

"Something like what?" Yami ventured to ask, slowly rising from his chair and approaching with an outstretched arm toward Mana, however he never dared to touch her.

Mana looked up at him. Her eyes weren't watery or tormented, but she seemed distressed enough to explode at any next time.

She swallowed and her hands, previously perched on her hair, went down into her arms. Hugging herself and looking back at nothing, as if she wasn't accompanied by both brothers.

Feeling alone, Yami noticed in a second that he shared a look with Yūgi.

_"The accident..." _she confessed after a while in silence. _"You talked about an accident, but I don't remember any of that. The last thing... The last thing I know is that I was at the arts academy, looking for someone, meeting that person and then... And then..."_ she shook her head and looked at him. _"And then everything is blurry and confusing. Like a fog that prevents me from seeing more than a meter from my nose." _

"Mana..." both brothers tried to stop her, but she seemed to be in a world far away from them.

_"... And I know… I only know that if I find myself… That if I am again the" me' alive, of flesh and blood, I will continue as I am… confused and without memories of what happened,"_ she looked up at Yūgi and then turned to Yami. _"I also know —My goodness, I also know that it wasn't just an accident." _

Yami frowned and looked at his younger twin brother with the same expression of misunderstanding on his face. Of course, both had suspected that it wasn't a simple accident. Things were too complicated for everything to be a clumsy misstep, but none had a certainty to tell Mana so lightly.

And then she simply said it.

_"I never go from side to side with all my canvases in my arms,"_ she explained. _"Especially since I had no reason to do so. The canvases stay in the same room where you are so that they are not ruined and are treated with great care when being moved from one place to another. Don't you think it would be silly and reckless of me to come and go with so many canvases on top? How could I take the entire collection I would present at the exhibition?! They weren't even complete!"_

"But, according to Yami, it didn't seem strange to your family that you fell, if that was the case," Yūgi objected, putting himself on the side of coincidences.

Mana shook her head.

_"I bet my brother and Ishizu are just saying the same thing so that no one suspects anything. If we could talk to them—" _

"We can," Yami interrupted her confidently. "Granps must know a way to call them, and it seems that they have been interested in us since we said we met you during the winter. But..."

"But?" Yūgi looked at him.

Yami brought a hand to his chin and rubbed it carelessly.

"They think we are only interested in that Atem," he said aloud. "It would be weird to suddenly arrive and ask for Mana knowing the state she is in."

_"It would be weird if it were us, huh..."_

"Only it doesn't have to be us," Yūgi said after thinking for a few seconds.

Both Yami and Mana looked at him in confusion. Who else, apart from them, could go?

"Yugi?" Yami wanted to know.

Yūgi smiled bitterly at him and took his cell phone from his pocket before turning it on.

_Rare_, thought Mana and Yami at the same time. It was weird that it was off being the time it was.

In silence, Yūgi dialed something on the mobile device and then it rang and vibrated again and again, as if the sender of the messages was an insistent and desperate person.

Yūgi only sighed in response before showing the screen to both viewers.

There were many, many messages from Téa followed one after another even if they were only a two-word phrase after two more words.

The most had to do with Mana and her relationship with both twins. Or who was Mana. Or why Mana.

In short, Téa was looking for the answers to her questions in Yūgi.

_"Yugi, you don't have to—"_ Mana began knowing what the idea would entail.

Yūgi waved his hand contemptuously.

"Don't bother," he interrupted. "She has been trying to communicate with me since, well... you know. I can't ignore her forever."

"Yūgi..." this time it was Yami who tried. "Are you sure? Téa is—"

"A little unstable? Probably, but this is the most effective solution I can think of. In addition, sooner or later we would have to see each other in the face and she doesn't even know what is happening."

"But she—"

"I'll go with her and make her leave her cell phone in call mode so we can hear what they say. I'll explain the circumstances superficially and she will do the rest," he smiled. "She's not crazy, guys, she's a good person completely in love."

The tone he used made it look like he was joking, but both Mana and Yami noticed that it was only a facade. That it was difficult for Yūgi to face everything so quickly.

And they didn't have the strength to oppose his courage.

Mana shot Yami a desperate look to stop his brother. It wasn't fair that, for her, he had to do things that way: so rushed and straightforward, but Yami only shook his head consciously of his brother's facade that, far from being just a facade, he tried to show that he didn't need to be protected. That he could protect too.

He wanted them to trust him.

"I'll leave it in your care, then."

* * *

Once Yūgi's impromptu idea was agreed upon, the hardest thing for the youngest Mutō came after he heard about Yami and Téa.

And that was to call her.

He wasn't as strong as he looked and he was really terrified of getting into a nervous breakdown from just seeing or hearing her, but he knew he wasn't so crazy after half-calming down with a couple of deep breaths.

He took the cell phone in his hands and looked at the screen a few seconds before pressing the button needed to make the call.

It rang only once before Téa's sharp voice answered.

_"Hi? Yūgi?"_ she said on the other side of the line.

He took a breath again and threw it out his nose.

"Hello, Téa," he said with a half smile without relevance. "Tell me, would you mind helping me with something?"

And then he explained what they would do.

* * *

Meanwhile, Yami and Mana could only wait sitting in the dining room. Yami's fingers drummed rhythmically against the table at the same time as Mana kept a sepulchral silence.

Yami's amethyst eyes landed on the thoughtful Mana a couple of seconds before he looked away remembering what Yūgi had said:

_«__I'm glad you like her.» _

For the moment, his mind had been occupied by other things that overshadowed youth romance, but now, in silence and being alone with nothing special in mind —at least on his part—, he had become terribly conscious of the presence of the messy hair girl.

She, at the time, noticed his gaze when she raised her chin toward him. Her greenish eyes also studied him, in silence, with a special glow of thanks and something else he couldn't distinguish.

_"Hey, Yami,"_ she called after a while.

"Hmm?"

_"It's likely that I —That we can't see each other for a while,"_ she said making him look up her. _"I mean when all this is over. When I'm in my body and, well... you understand." _

"Why?" it was the only thing he managed to ask.

Mana thought about it for a few seconds.

_"Because I..."_ she swallowed and continued after exhaling. _"Because now you are probably only seeing the best part of me. Because maybe, when I wake up, I won't be even able to talk or move. My body has been in a coma for almost a whole year, I don't want you to see me in that state."_

"Mana..."

_"Besides,"_ she turned her eyes to the palm of her hand, _"I think there's something strange about me right now."_

Yami inclined his head with a frown in confusion. He placed his palms on the table and rose quickly, worried suddenly.

"Something strange? Are you okay?" he questioned.

However Mana only denied.

_"No, it's not that, it's just that, when I see my reflection, I don't see myself, you know? As if it were a different version from me, but me anyway. I don't know how to explain it, but I—"_ she looked at him again._ "Just... promise me we'll meet again after all this. That we will hang out the three of us again. Just..."_ she came close enough to him to put their hands together and look at him face to face. _"Just wait for me to find you, yes?"_

«...to find you,» Yami repeated in his mind. It was singular. She meant only him.

And he was talking to her.

The intensity of her eyes prevented him from looking away and took away his speech for a few seconds, merely nodding into a silent promise.

She smiled at him and slowly let go of his hands.

Yami suddenly found himself empty without them.

Was that...?

He didn't know, but he knew he had experienced it before. As a distant memory. An unreachable one.

He smiled softly.

An unreachable memory that seemed more like a dream than anything else.

A dream about the past. A rare sensation.


	16. XV

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS._**

* * *

Téa wasn't nervous or anxious. Nor furious. Much less cheerful. Téa felt confused and strange, as if she didn't fit into everything that was happening and, well, that seemed to be really the case.

While Yūgi had told her about what he and Yami both needed, she didn't quite understand why she should do it. Nor how. She was on bad terms with Yami since the afternoon of the museum and believed that Yūgi was also upset with her, but he wasn't.

_I would have preferred that though,_ she thought. Téa would have preferred them to be upset with her so that they wouldn't involve her more in that matter than she knew almost nothing.

She moved her fingers nervously on the hotel restaurant table. Thanks to Yūgi she had been able to arrange a kind of appointment with the Owsten couple, owners of the newly opened museum.

As she had heard, she had to get information about who visited the so-called Mana in the hospital, as well as what really happened, or what they thought happened. However, the strategy she had in mind was not something to be especially proud of.

"Sorry for the delay," then said a female voice behind her. No time gave her head to turn when the beautiful woman with dark complexion and blue eyes was already sitting in front of her. "I am Ishizu Ishtar. You must be Téa Gardner, right?"

Téa nodded and the woman soon asked for a drink to one of the waiters.

"Mahad won't be able to come, or so he told me. Maybe he'll show up later," she rolled her eyes as she continued talking, although Téa couldn't tell the reason. "Thing of men. Who can understand them?"

"I will be direct," Téa said to interrupt Ishizu. She methodically crossed her fingers and lowered her elbows so that her forearms had support on the table. She hoped her expression expressed the seriousness she wanted to pretend. "I think my boyfriend cheats on me."

Ishizu seemed funny about it.

"I'm sorry for that, but I think you have the wrong woman," she said, feeling obviously alluded to. "I am engaged and, from what I see, we are very distant in a matter of age."

"I was not mistaken," Téa said before Ishizu took her purse with the intention of retiring. "It's just that you are the person I find closest to her right now. I mean, since his brother couldn't come."

Slowly and with the eyebrows practically together, Ishizu stopped her intention of getting up, suddenly giving Téa all her attention.

_Yūgi was right,_ Téa thought. Mana had no one else. It was just her, her brother and his fiancé.

Which, she tried not to accept, caused her some pity.

"Are you talking about Mana?" asked the woman in front of her.

Her surprise showed how much it cost her to believe that the girl, which Téa didn't know, did something like that.

"That's what they say her name is," she replied, pretending to control her anger. "I think they started seeing each other during the winter."

A smile peeked in Ishizu's expression as she shook her head.

"Then it's not Mana," she concluded. "In case you didn't know, she is in the hospital, fighting between life and death. She has no time or vitality to be with a boy."

"And who can insure it?" interrupted Téa. "She doesn't need to be alive to burn in my boyfriend's mind, does she? Surely you know him and don't want to tell me!"

"This is absurd!" Ishizu exclaimed, raising her voice slightly. Some people turned in her direction so she quickly regained her composure. "No one apart from the closest ones come to visit her."

"I'm sorry I find it hard to believe that only you visit her. Didn't she go to high school? To an academy? Somehow she had to meet him!"

God, Téa noticed some sidelong glances and was glad she wasn't someone well-known.

"She did," Ishizu's eyes became hard and sharp. Téa was afraid to show how much she intimidated her. "But few are close enough. And, of course, we do not allow any stranger to approach."

"Oh, so my boyfriend is not a stranger. I'm sure you know it!" she accused using her few acting skills.

Although in part not everything was a lie.

"Enough. I will not allow this to continue," Ishizu clenched her jaw. "Mana suffered a very serious accident. The arts conservatory takes care of her and doesn't allow anyone other than us, her family, and Ryou, her best friend, to approach. So unless your boyfriend's name is Ryou Bakura, which I doubt very much, I don't think your love problems have anything to do with Mana, or with us."

Téa blinked at the name, but didn't have time to ask. Ishizu hit the table with her palms and jumped up, just then the waiter decided to bring her the drink she had asked for. With a thank you and a forced smile, the young woman told him to add it to her hotel account and looked at Téa one last time in the eyes, directly, getting her to swallow.

"I don't know what you're looking for or who you really are, but don't try to get close again, understand?"

Her angry footsteps echoed until she left the restaurant and headed for the elevator, only then, when the doors closed, Téa could exhale all the air she kept in her lungs.

Another of the waiters approached to ask for her order, but, once again, she shook her head and rose from her seat. With a delicate movement she took her cellphone from her pocket and placed it next to her ear.

"I hope you heard that," she said.

"_Loud and clear_," Yūgi replied on the other side of the line before adding. "_It was enough. Thanks, Téa_."

Then both hung up.

Téa sighed again as she left the elegant place where she felt out of place. She looked back and began to walk. She didn't know who Mana was. She was not at all interested in what had happened to her, but, by Ishizu's tone and gaze, she could sense one thing for sure: something was dangerous. Not only the state of Mana.

* * *

Once the call was cut, Yūgi inspired and exhaled before looking back at his brother and Mana. Yami seemed very focused on his thoughts as he rubbed his chin with the fingers of his left hand; instead Mana was notoriously conflicted, fiddling with her fingers in front of her chest and floating from side to side with her eyes fixed on no point.

He swallowed before expressing aloud what the three of them would surely be thinking.

"Ryou Bakura," said Yūgi. "You didn't say you knew him."

_"I didn't know I knew him,"_ Mana replied. _"Ha, and I thought they were hallucinations of mine..." _

"At least we know it wasn't an accident," Yami said, rising from the sofa he was on and approaching Mana with a determined look. "Do you see it, Mana? The conservatory wouldn't put so many restrictions if it had only been negligence."

Yūgi also got up.

"But that only gives us a suspect," he waited a few seconds before continuing. "Since we all know that neither Mahad nor Ishizu did it..."

Mana looked nervously out the window. They understood, somehow, everything that went through her head.

_"__So what?"_ she asked without looking at them. _"We go and tell my brother it was Ryou Bakura who caused the accident and it all ends there? That can't be! Why would someone as important as 'my best friend' do that to me?"_

"Because you don't even remember him as a best friend," Yami replied harshly before turning around. "We cannot go to the conservatory to look for evidence, especially for the amount of time that has passed. Nor can we accuse him so lightly, he has the support and trust of your family, then..."

"We can only make him confess, huh..." Yūgi said.

Yami nodded effusively.

"Yes. He has to confess it. In the art exhibition. I am sure something must be there to betray him."

_"Something like what?"_ asked Mana. _"I can't even say for sure it was him." _

There were several seconds of silence, each in their thoughts.

"I don't know," Yami replied, just to turn around and look Mana straight in the eye. "But we will find out, Mana. I promise."

* * *

She had no choice but to nod. Although Mana had no evidence, even if she was not certain, she knew that Yami and Yūgi were quite right to suspect Ryou Bakura.

He had been going to the hospital. She was being watched in the hospital. Both went to the conservatory and knew each other.

And, above all, she couldn't deny the indescribable feeling of dread that came when she saw him that day in the art room of the Domino school.

She had to take a deep breath so as not to sink into the despair of the confusion. She had made the decision to move forward with the mystery and both Yūgi and Yami were willing to help her no matter how dangerous that could be.

She smiled slightly at them. She really doubted that Bakura was as dangerous as the situation described him, but she didn't really know him anymore.

And maybe she never did.

They only had to wait until the day of the exhibition. Luckily, they wouldn't wait too long.

* * *


	17. XVI

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS. _**

* * *

Anxiety: what Mana was feeling as she entered, just behind Yami and Yūgi, into the huge room where the art exhibition would be presented.

She gathered saliva under her tongue and then swallowed it loudly, closed her eyes taking a deep breath, and then pretended the frivolous serenity with which she had intended to be.

Of course, the feeling was not as great as when she saw Ryou Bakura or the painting in that gallery. If that were the case, both Yami and Yūgi would have felt the worry and fear as their own, but it was not so, and instead, they both peeped at the surroundings, refusing to separate from each other, or from her, in any case.

Trying to change her mood to a merely more calculating one, she looked up at the stage around them. The ceiling was high, and the columns and walls were a fairly clean smoke white, perhaps not to overshadow in any way the paintings and creations that were either hung or on a pedestal of the same shade. To avoid accidents, almost the entire hall was surrounded by discreet guards and those red strings that clearly indicated a prohibition on the way. As in the gallery, the lights were warm, sadly, and simple ambient music filled the spaces between conversations and observations.

Finally, almost all the people who had attended were around thirty to seventy years old, with the exception of the conservatory students, of course, who in turn wore formal clothes and presented some of their crafts with a firm full chest of pride.

Mana found herself with a slight hint of envy inside, thinking that she should be the one standing there explaining what had inspired her, or what the work in question was called, but she soon discarded that line of thought. Desperate thoughts.

Yami glanced at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Are you okay?" he wanted to know.

She could only nod, preferring not to lie to him with a tremulous voice or a lost look.

Before Yami could comment further, Yūgi's slight movement calling her caught her attention. The younger Mutō pointed his jaw in one direction and, when Mana also looked, a slight smile escaped from the struggle of thoughts and emotions inside her.

The couple made up of Mahad and Ishizu came briskly towards them, both with a relieved rather than surprised expression.

"Young Mutō, I'm glad you were able to come," said his older brother with that distinctive cordial touch in his words.

"It's just you?" Ishizu wanted to know by looking quickly at Mana, not knowing what to think, and then searching among the small crowd that surrounded them.

Mana realized that perhaps she was looking for Téa, but Yūgi was more than quick to intervene just before they entered a terrible and awkward silence.

"Our grandfather is likely to come later," he said with a smile that Mana couldn't identify. "He had to do a few things before."

"Oh," Ishizu smiled. "I see. In that case I hope he arrives before the main attraction."

"Main attraction?" Yami asked curiously, practically stealing the words from Mana.

It was Mahad who replied:

"The Past in Dreams," he said. She was flattered many times inside and outside the conservatory, although the painter is not known or famous, critics had such a good opinion that they thought of giving value to each painting that was presented today.

Mana gasped unconsciously and looked at Yami. He, for obvious reasons, was forced not to look back at her, but he didn't have to do it for her to understand.

It was the same collection from the gallery.

"What time?" Yūgi ventured to ask with quite realistic curiosity.

Mahad looked at his black watch. Mana recognized the object as a birthday gift that she herself had chosen.

"In an hour or so," he replied, and pointed carelessly back. "They are making the preparations while the same painter is psyched up. It is his first live performance and he is nervous."

"Do you know him?" Yami wanted to know.

Ishizu nodded.

"He is close to the family, especially Mana. The two of them have been together since childhood and, oh, what was the story like?" she turned to her fiancé.

A graceful smile split Mahad's face.

"Nothing complicated. They met at the conservatory after moving from London about ten years ago. Ryou has an amazing ability to capture what he sees on canvas, while Mana is more of the type that projects what she thinks."

"Hmm..." at that moment, Yūgi and Yami shared a confused look, something that only twins could understand, but it was enough for both Mahad and Ishizu to suspect something.

Mana tilted her head with narrowed eyes, seriously intrigued by the following actions the twins took; but, just before she could ask them, a senior man, who was wearing glasses and wearing a black suit with a red tie, caught the eye of all those present standing right in the middle and making the ambient music gradually stop.

"Dear guests..." Mana knew it was the principal of the arts conservatory. From what she remembered, he was a serious and strict man despite the friendly smile he expressed, however she couldn't remember meeting someone who loved both art and music as that gentleman.

The principal of the conservatory gave a word of thanks about attending the exhibition, also added how proud he was of his students that year and how excited to introduce "that genius" who had arrived in their classrooms ten years ago.

A tightness in her chest made her lips tighten. Those words...

"Mana," then Yami pulled her out of her daze with his deep voice. He nodded to the side and started walking.

Until that moment, Mana hadnʼt noticed that Yūgi, Mahad and Ishizu had disappeared. Following a few steps away from Yami, Mana could see that they were heading towards an isolated side of the property. They weren't exactly discreet, but also not outrageous. If she had to say it somehow, it was as if Yami was perfectly camouflaged with that stylized environment. Of course, some people turned to glance at him out of the corner of their eye, either because of his attractive appearance or suspicious attitude, but none stopped him from wherever they were heading.

And then they stopped in front of a huge door.

"Are you ready?" he wanted to know.

Mana didn't know what he meant.

_"I... Don't know? What are you talking about?" _

A long sigh escaped his lips, making her frown, as it was pretty obvious that he expected her to say something like that.

"I knew it. You are distracted."

_"I always am."_

"Well, today you are more. We have been talking for a long time with Mahad and Ishizu while you were spacing out. No, even since we arrived you have been acting more abnormal than other days," he closed his eyes as if calming himself and continued: "I know this must be hard on you, but trust me and Yūgi, okay? This cannot fail. Just... Try not to get into any crisis or run away in terror."

_"Hm? Why would I do that?!"_ she questioned. A bad feeling had begun to run down her spine.

And, without Yami warning her, he opened the huge door away from the crowd.

She gasped unconsciously as she passed under the threshold, and had much reason since around her, a lot of pictures and paintings with a well-known style appeared as if they had been waiting for her for a long time.

In silence, and almost in the dark by the discretion of that room, Mana left Yami a few steps behind as she began to look through each of the colorful canvases.

In one, huge dunes, under a bright sky, stretched to the horizon. A couple of riders were there, they seemed to be self-absorbed, as if the rest of the world didn't matter. One wore a blue cape up to his head, so Mana surprised herself to recognize him as a man, while the woman wore a brown cape with the hood down on her back. That left her untamed brown hair in plain view.

She repressed the urge to put her hands in her own hair by swallowing saliva and moving on to the next picture.

In that, the same guy in the blue cape was leaning back on a balcony of... What would it be? Dry earth? Rocks? Adobe?... She couldn't say it clearly, but she was sure that not even the dirty dust could take away the majestic aura that overflowed that man, who had been painted from a well-calculated angle so that was the purpose

The next painting was the one they saw in the gallery. It was still just as disquieting because of the number of priests in ot and the indescribable sense of familiarity it gave her, but at this point Mana was too engrossed in all the paintings in general and in her thoughts that there was no room for fears and doubts.

Once again she looked around and noticed, without surprise, that each of the paintings were focused on that mysterious man in a blue cloak and powerful aura. From a point of view full of admiration and, at the same time, full of longing. The kind of sad longing that someone felt for something they knew could never be completely theirs, no matter how close they were.

An unrequited love, perhaps? One as close as unattainable?

That certainly conveyed the paintings, which made it strange to think that it was a boy who had painted them —which was not bad, she thought.

But... Why did she feel that way? _Strange? _

She raised a hand tentatively towards the man in the painting and went through it without hesitation. She knew then. Those paintings were hers and, at the same time, they were not. The feelings that pierced the canvases were as much hers as they were foreign. As well-known as unknown.

As close as distant.

She shook her head with grief and turned her gaze to Yami, wondering if he would have, by the work and grace of fate, the same thoughts as her. If he would feel the same as her.

And judging by his expression, she knew it was so. However, his eyes were not focused on her or on the paintings about that mysterious man, but on one completely removed from the original collection, as if the artist, on purpose, wanted to keep it hidden in the dark.

She squinted her eyes and... She didn't know what exactly she saw, as her senses were clouded by hearing a voice fully expected as overwhelming.

"I knew it wouldn't be long before you got to me," he said, coming from a corner, as if he had been waiting for the perfect time to make his appearance. He wore a dark suit like most of the guests, except for the golden pendant that adorned his chest and wild white hair.

Bakura would have passed for someone civilized and completely fond of contemporary art, however, despite the sweet features of his face, Mana could no longer see him with the same eyes as before.

* * *

That painting... While Yami was surrounded by strange paintings, without a doubt, the one that caught his attention couldn't be other than the one that had nothing to do with the Egyptian theme of that collection.

Of course, he had heard Bakura speak, but he paid no attention to it except to that secluded canvas. Unlike the warm tones around it, it was bathed in cool shades of green and other varieties that simulated a strange and cloudy sky. Some white spots were falling around. Snow, maybe? No. It was feathers. And in the middle of it, surrounded by the storm, there was a person hugging their legs. Her skin was light, but the shadows gave her a slight tan, while her hair, long and straight, but messy, was of a strong and bright blond. Part of her face was hidden between her knees, but what little he could see gave her away completely.

It was Mana. She was different, very changed, but it was her. He couldn't confuse her.

He heard footsteps approaching and soon Bakura was closer than he had expected.

"She is beautiful, isn't she?" he smiled. An expression that seemed sad, but Yami could sense the sardonic. "It is a pity that she couldn't come to the exhibition, I am sure she would have loved my collection."

"Her collection," Yami corrected, taking a step back and regaining his composure. "All of this except for that painting," pointed out Mana's painting. "Belong to Mana, don't they?"

Bakura looked at him with both eyebrows raised.

"Relax, Mutō," he shook his head before smiling. "These are definitely my paintings, you know? They have my brand. My signature."

Yami shook his head.

"It's not true," he accused. "All these paintings are—They have a romantic feeling made by the same person, while that one is... Cold. Spiteful."

"Well, I didn't know you were such an art critic."

"And I am not. So it's surprising how much hatred you emanate toward her," he said.

Bakura smiled as if the mere thought of it was absurd and then shrugged.

"Even if you say that, it is true that I painted these pictures, you know? I could do it again. Because—"

"Because your specialty is to capture what you see, or should I say 'copy'?" Bakura turned his head abruptly as if he had heard terrible blasphemy. Yami allowed himself to smile sideways. "It seems what Mahad said is true. Is that why you hold a grudge against Mana? For being able to project her dreams and thoughts on canvas while you can only imitate the crude reality?" hesaw the boy clench his fists. "Is that why you pushed her down the stairs and, after remembering them well, you tore them apart?"

"You are saying stupid things, do you realize? Mana fell down the stairs as she carried her paintings to the restoration room. Didn't you know how clumsy she is?"

Yami felt Mana's outrage even though Mana said nothing. However this time he did repress the smile that threatened to escape.

"Clumsy, maybe. But not stupid," he avoided adding the 'like others' before saying: "You know, Bakura, there are three things that only the culprit and the victim could know," Yami started to walk while listing with his fingers. "The first: who is each, in case it was a mystery. The second: the reason why they acted as they did. And finally: the context that surrounded them."

Bakura's expression, while not exactly calm, changed suddenly. Realizing that he was right, relieved as he was, Yami knew it would mean nothing if...

The door opened and this time, Yami smiled.

Bakura turned around with fake calm as Ishizu and Mahad, followed by Yūgi, entered. Her blue eyes were completely incredulous and horrified, while Mahad's only showed the hottest of fires.

"Is that true, Bakura?" Mana's brother asked, though he didn't seem to need confirmation.

Bakura denied.

"It's... It's something I remembered after talking to the police..."

"And why didn't you say so before?" Yūgi lashed out.

"I... forgot. It's just that I was so busy coming and going from the hospital while I finished painting..."

He had started to sweat coldly and he stuttered looking everywhere and, at the same time, none in particular.

"It can't be... You did it!" Ishizu exclaimed, pointing an index finger. "You—You are —How could you betray her?!"

If Bakura had shown any hint of guilt and regret, even acknowledgment, it soon disappeared when his scowl furrowed and his jaw clenched so tightly that he trembled.

"Betray her?!" he repeated. "She couldn't even paint the apple they put in front of everyone and still flattered her to the point of ceasing to evaluate! I, on the other hand, always did what they asked me to do perfectly. Portraits, paintings, stupid geometric figures... And for what?! She had all the credit for nothing! And she said everything with... With such happiness... So calm and pride. As if she was the only one with that talent. They have always, always compared us. It was always 'Mana who paints and Bakura who copies.' she never made the slightest effort to progress."

"And you did?" Mahad questioned, his voice tight, as if at any moment he was going to scream or break. "Did you progress? Is that what it meant to throw her down the stairs for you?"

"And what did you plan to do after shw woke up, huh?" Ishizu asked. "Try to murder her again? Amazing! Guards!"

Her screams were so desperate that the uniformed men were quick to arrive as soon as possible. Assuming he would try to run away, Yami stood behind Bakura, but Bakura, instead of making a move, just smiled as if everything was fun.

However, as soon as he saw that smile, it disappeared as if it had never been there, being replaced by an expression full of regret and terror.

"No, it's not what you think! I can explain it! Mahad! Ishizu!"

Ignoring his pleas, both of Mana's family members stepped aside as journalists, photographers and other guests took note of what was happening.

That would be a big stain in many ways, Yami supposed, before looking up at Mana, who had held herself in expectation.

Her gaze betrayed sadness, but she didn't seem eager to show it aloud. The two shared one last look of camaraderie before Yūgi called them.

Once most of the uproar had ceased, both Yami and Yūgi were called to give their statement of events to the police. They didn't have an official version of how or when they had come to investigate all that, but they seemed satisfied with what little they said.

Thanks to Mahad, they were both able to sneak out of the reporters using a kind of back door, through which employees entered and exited.

And, being in tranquility, Mana was finally able to speak.

_"How did you make all this happen successfully?"_ she wanted to know.

Yami shrugged his shoulders.

"While you were lost in your world, Yūgi and I talked to your brother about a possible suspect who was present among the guests."

"We asked them to help us by hearing what he had to say, and it was only a matter of conviction to follow us. The rest falls to Yami."

Yūgi nudged Yami friendly, to which he laughed.

"It was more improvised than planned, but I figured if I made him talk enough, at some point he'd drop something interesting."

"Hmm..."

Turning in a corner contrary to the one they were supposed to take, Mana realized, then, that they were not heading to the Mutō home.

Before she could ask, the huge and elegant Domino Hospital made its way into her field of vision and her heart clenched in her chest.

Yūgi smiled sadly at her.

"I think it's about time, right? You already remembered and everything was solved. You just need to recover both your peace and that of your family."

Mana nodded, holding a hand to her chest, then looked at Yami.

He smiled at her with that same warmth as ever, only an image appeared overlaid on Mana's eyes.

An image of that man in the cape, with the Millennium Puzzle hanging from Yūgi's neck.

_"Then I'll try to recover as soon as possible so I can find you."_

"I'll be waiting," he said so casually that he hardly realizes he had ever heard that phrase before and since Yūgi made the same joke, a warm sense of déjà vu touched her. And Mana knew that if she could, she would hug them both with all the strength of a brown bear.

Instead, she could only smile as they made their way to a stop in front of the transparent glass doors of the hospital.

With just a wave of the hand, Mana walked through the doors without even opening them, however, before walking away completely, she quickly turned around and returned directly to Yami.

He was surprised to feel something on his lips and soon Mana was no longer by his side.

Not by his side, not anywhere.


	18. epilogue

**_I do not own YGO! DUEL MONSTERS. _**

* * *

Some months passed after Mana's departure and soon almost a year passed until December. Snow had fallen the night before, so many neighbors were removing it from their gardens and yards, while Yami, who was alone at home, had no energy to do the same.

Things had calmed down quickly since Mahad and Ishizu decided to release any information. Mainly to hide the identities of Yami and Yūgi, but also to protect Bakura as the last sign of brotherly affection.

However that didn't prevent both brothers from being called to testify against him. It was very hard going through the many questions that the defense attorney asked, but they understood that it was their job after all and they just tried not to commit perjury as well as how they met Mana and related.

Thank heaven, or some force of fate, Bakura ended up confessing his guilt. Since there was accusation and confession, all that didn't last more than a month. Being a minor, the sentence was less than what they would have liked, or what he really deserved, but at least it would be enough to find peace for Mana, who due to her condition was unable to attend the interviews in person.

The last thing he knew about her, back then, was a letter that she herself dictated and asked Ishizu to deliver it to them.

In that summary note she said:

«I've found the man in the paintings, you know? This time I won't let him go before I do. Take care and, apart from a thank you, I don't expect news from you soon. -M.»

And, as asked, all he did was thank Ishizu before putting the note in his pocket.

With a mug of hot chocolate in his left hand and the TV remote control in the other, he began to change channels continuously without stopping at any one. It was just when he decided to see one of those repetitive Christmas movies that the doorbell rang.

Confused, since he didn't wait for anyone until at least lunch, Yami got up slowly as he looked for some money just in case they were those people who collected donations. However, when he opened the door, he only saw one person with their back to him.

A girl, he knew instantly. She was covered from head to toe in the cold, but her long, untamed blonde hair was slipping from all sides. She was wearing knee-high blue boots and blue jeans, as well as a warm pink jacket with some blue details like her hat and gloves.

She turned on her heel upon hearing him and an unmistakable smile as her person adorned her expression.

"It's been a while, Atem," she greeted, her rosy cheeks giving off steam from the cold.

Her voice was the same. If there was any doubt, it was already completely gone.

And before he could even react, she closed the distance between them and threw her arms around his neck in a desperate hug. Slightly stunned, Yami took a step back from the sudden weight, but soon steadied himself and returned the gesture.

"That's not my name," was the only thing he managed to say.

She laughed

"I know," she said and tightened her grip. "I know that very well, Yami."

If it was cold outside, if it was snowing, if both were practically frozen, neither felt it, because both were completely immersed in the warmth of that hug.

That hug as desired as necessary.


End file.
